The Orchard is rooted in Chekhov classic
Highly personal rewrite offers up a new experience
In just her second season at the Shaw Festival, Sarena Parmar has been handed a remarkably plum gig — starring in her own play.
In this case, it’s a highly personal rewrite of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s classic “The Cherry Orchard,” which the Shaw last did with Tom Murphy’s Irish-tinged version in 2010. The last play Chekhov ever wrote, it’s a play with elements of farce buried in a tragic, unrelentingly bleak story.
In Parmar’s hands, it mirrors her upbringing in Kelowna, B.C., where her family happened to own an orchard. Instead of Chekhov’s Russians at the turn of the 20th century, it’s a Punjabi-Sikh family fighting to save their family orchard in the Okanagan Valley during the mid ’70s.
The characters are essentially the same, presented through Parmar’s Canadian lens to touch upon the plight of immigrants and the country’s changing culture under Trudeau (the first one). It remains a heavy show, but not as unbearably dark as most productions of “The Cherry Orchard.” As a playwright, Parmar picks her spots wisely — the story feels the same, but the experience is completely different.
Chekhov purists (there must be some) may nitpick the changes — especially a final scene that erases the gut-punch of the original — but this is a fresh take from a fresh face.
The familiar plot finds a family reconvening at their family orchard to deal with some grim news: Unless they come up with some quick cash, the bank is going to auction their land. As a last-ditch effort, Annie (Parmar) has retrieved her mother (Pamela Sinha), who fled the country five years earlier after losing her husband and young son.
With two months before the auction, family friend Michael (an outstanding Jeff Meadows) offers a solution: Convert most of the estate into a trendy RV park. No one wants to hear it, but no one comes up with anything better.
As per Chekhov’s sour template, the family appears close but is highly dysfunctional. Arguments break out at random, motives are questioned, and there’s lingering bitterness over mom’s desertion. “I was here rotting, and you forgot me,” says Parmar.
Adding to the tension, young intellectual Peter (Shawn Ahmed) is urging everyone to ditch Canada and go back to India, where they won’t face bigotry: “Take back these leaves and invest in a country that wants us.”
It would be interesting to see Parmar tackle these issues in a play completely her own, but she wrings just enough newness out of Chekhov’s familiar landscape — under Ravi Jain’s assured direction – to make this Orchard worth picking again.