S
ince its publication in 1904, it’s been an open question as to whether The Cherry Orchard—onstage at Kalamazoo Civic this month—is a comedy or a tragedy.
Anton Chekhov, its author, saw it as the former; Konstantin Stanislavski, its first director, saw it as a tragedy. Like life, it intermingles elements of both.
This play, onstage for Kalamazoo Civic Theatre’s season January 16-25, tells the story of Madame Ranevskaya, an aristocratic Russian woman who returns to her family estate just as it’s about to be sold off to pay familial debts. The estate is beloved, not least because of the glorious cherry orchard living on it, and several offers are made to save it. Madame Ranevskaya is unmoved…