The Cherry Orchard Diaries: It's Funny Too, By The Way
Hi,
Will be a short one today.
I'm out of the rehearsal room for a little bit, working on much overdue other projects (As ever, if you're reading this - sorry, I am doing it). I've also being following up with a backlog of emails and as a play comes to the stage there are a lot of emails.
Honestly, I'm gutted to be away from the rehearsal room. Particularly because there are just so many laughs in it. The people are funny. The play is funny! I felt a bit weird about this for a bit since it's not how people understand The Cherry Orchard to be (including, famously, Stanislavski, the original director) but it's true of this play generally, not just my version.
The subtitle of Chekhov's original is A Comedy In Four Acts. I remembered this when reading through the proofs for the publication of the play text and saw that - somehow - my joke subtitle (Brown) Chekhov in Space accidentally found its way onto a very Official Looking file. I needed that title to exist in my head both as a way to succinctly explain the concept but also to let me treat it with irreverence. Which I needed to do because, again, we present it as a very serious text which it is but...it's also just very silly in lots of ways and those two things sit together throughout, sometimes crossing right on top of each other. (Spoilers ahead? I guess?)
The play that's about a tormented widower, mourning the death of her son is also the play that has a gag about squeaky boots.
The play that's set among the end of an era, where a feckless aristocratic class reaps the just rewards of its horrific reliance on serfdom is also the play where some of those aristos are portrayed as somewhat loveable goofs with amusing mannerisms.
The play that has hard emotional truths delivered to devastating effect is also the play where a guy falls down some stairs a few seconds after delivering one of said truths.
And the play which foregrounds two people's hilariously awkward inability to get together is also the play where that same awkwardness becomes emotionally devastating by the end.
It's a cliché to talk about how life is comedy and tragedy at once but it's the way this play acknowledges that the absurdity of that clash exists outside of dramatic convenience that makes it feel forever relatable. When we live among other people's moods, wants and eccentricities as well as our own, there are no perfectly pure tonal moments, whether that's in a manor house or a spaceship.
P.S. I think there will only be two more of these. One covering the last week of rehearsal and a final one covering tech which I'll put out on the day of first preview...after which I imagine I'll want to disappear from the internet. It's all getting very close now.
Vin x
CHEKHOV CORNER
I know what you're thinking. You've been waiting to ask all along: "Did Chekhov ever encounter a brown person in his life?"
The answer is a hearty oh yes! The details, however, are very much an oh no! But we're all friends now so I think we can start sharing the slightly uglier parts of our dead collaborator. Today's quotations are from the part of Chekhov's letters where he's travelling beyond Russia...
KITTY KLUB
Not sure if I've told this story here before but, when I first on responsibility for the cats, I soon discovered the exact pitch of whistle that brings Pretty Cat scampering. How did I discover this? I was whistling the Star Wars theme tune while cooking and Pretty pegged it into the room. At first I didn't understand what had happened and just assumed he was having one of his occasional moments of madness. But then it happened again another day, as I whistled the exact same tune. Eventually I figured out it wasn't the Star Wars theme that was bringing him (alas), it was one particular note.
For years, this note has been the way I've called Pretty back from afar (or from sitting outside, below the window). HOWEVER! Of late, he's started totally ignoring it....and his brother now instead responds to it even though he never used to. Was this decided between them? Did they have a conference? Who can say?
Cat ownership, like the universe, is full of mysteries.
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
(The Cherry Orchard runs at the Yard Theatre between 5th September and 22nd October 2022. It then goes to HOME from the 2nd to the 19th November)
Will be a short one today.
I'm out of the rehearsal room for a little bit, working on much overdue other projects (As ever, if you're reading this - sorry, I am doing it). I've also being following up with a backlog of emails and as a play comes to the stage there are a lot of emails.
Honestly, I'm gutted to be away from the rehearsal room. Particularly because there are just so many laughs in it. The people are funny. The play is funny! I felt a bit weird about this for a bit since it's not how people understand The Cherry Orchard to be (including, famously, Stanislavski, the original director) but it's true of this play generally, not just my version.
The subtitle of Chekhov's original is A Comedy In Four Acts. I remembered this when reading through the proofs for the publication of the play text and saw that - somehow - my joke subtitle (Brown) Chekhov in Space accidentally found its way onto a very Official Looking file. I needed that title to exist in my head both as a way to succinctly explain the concept but also to let me treat it with irreverence. Which I needed to do because, again, we present it as a very serious text which it is but...it's also just very silly in lots of ways and those two things sit together throughout, sometimes crossing right on top of each other. (Spoilers ahead? I guess?)
The play that's about a tormented widower, mourning the death of her son is also the play that has a gag about squeaky boots.
The play that's set among the end of an era, where a feckless aristocratic class reaps the just rewards of its horrific reliance on serfdom is also the play where some of those aristos are portrayed as somewhat loveable goofs with amusing mannerisms.
The play that has hard emotional truths delivered to devastating effect is also the play where a guy falls down some stairs a few seconds after delivering one of said truths.
And the play which foregrounds two people's hilariously awkward inability to get together is also the play where that same awkwardness becomes emotionally devastating by the end.
It's a cliché to talk about how life is comedy and tragedy at once but it's the way this play acknowledges that the absurdity of that clash exists outside of dramatic convenience that makes it feel forever relatable. When we live among other people's moods, wants and eccentricities as well as our own, there are no perfectly pure tonal moments, whether that's in a manor house or a spaceship.
P.S. I think there will only be two more of these. One covering the last week of rehearsal and a final one covering tech which I'll put out on the day of first preview...after which I imagine I'll want to disappear from the internet. It's all getting very close now.
Vin x
CHEKHOV CORNER
I know what you're thinking. You've been waiting to ask all along: "Did Chekhov ever encounter a brown person in his life?"
The answer is a hearty oh yes! The details, however, are very much an oh no! But we're all friends now so I think we can start sharing the slightly uglier parts of our dead collaborator. Today's quotations are from the part of Chekhov's letters where he's travelling beyond Russia...
Yes, I'm afraid Anton is fan of the Let Them Eat Railways hypothesis popular among the red-trouser/ruddy-faced brigade. And then there's the actual encounter which is...well...9th December 1890
I rode in a rickshaw, that is to say a chaise pulled by a man, bought all manner of trinkets from the Chinese, and got very indignant when I heard my Russian travelling companionscomplaining about the English exploiting the natives. Yes, I thought, perhaps the English do exploit the Chinese, the Sepoys and the Hindus, but on the other hand they give them roads, running water, museums, Christianity. You also exploit people, but what do you give them in return?
After that came Ceylon, which was paradise. I travelled more than seventy miles by train, and enjoyed my fill of palm groves and bronze-skinned women. When I have children of my own, I shall be able to boast to them: "Well, you little sons of bitches, once upon a time I had intercourse with a black-eyed Hindu girl, and where do you think that was? In a coconut grove, by the light of the moon!
So uh...A Problematic Fave, shall we say? On the plus side, he does - shortly after - manage to at least find some tasteful misanthropy.
Right on, brother.The Red Sea is a depressing place, but I found I was moved by the sight of Mount Sinai. God's world is good. Only one thing in it is vile: ourselves.
KITTY KLUB
Not sure if I've told this story here before but, when I first on responsibility for the cats, I soon discovered the exact pitch of whistle that brings Pretty Cat scampering. How did I discover this? I was whistling the Star Wars theme tune while cooking and Pretty pegged it into the room. At first I didn't understand what had happened and just assumed he was having one of his occasional moments of madness. But then it happened again another day, as I whistled the exact same tune. Eventually I figured out it wasn't the Star Wars theme that was bringing him (alas), it was one particular note.
For years, this note has been the way I've called Pretty back from afar (or from sitting outside, below the window). HOWEVER! Of late, he's started totally ignoring it....and his brother now instead responds to it even though he never used to. Was this decided between them? Did they have a conference? Who can say?
Cat ownership, like the universe, is full of mysteries.
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
(The Cherry Orchard runs at the Yard Theatre between 5th September and 22nd October 2022. It then goes to HOME from the 2nd to the 19th November)
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