Use this character list as a bookmark!
Anton Chekhov
The Cherry Orchard
A Comedy in Four Acts
Lyubov Andreyevna RANÉVSKAYA (nickname = Lyuba)
widowed landowner returning from Paris to her Russian estate
Anya (Anyechka) her daughter, aged 17
Varya her adopted daughter, aged 24
Leonid Andreyevich GAYEV (Lyonya) Madame
Ranyevskaya’s brother
Yermolai Alekseyevich LOPÁKHIN
a businessman/merchant
Pyotr Sergeyevich TROFÍMOV (Petya) student, late 20s,
tutor of Mme Ranyevskaya’s late son Grisha
Boris Borisovich SEMYÓNOV-PÍSHCHIK (called
Pishchik) a landowner, who owes money
Charlotta Ivánovna Anya’s English governess
Semyon Panteleyevich YEPIKHÓDOV a clerk, “two and
twenty troubles”
Dunyasha (Dounia) a maid
Firs (a nickname based on his last name, Firsov, pronounced
/Fērz/) an eighty-seven-years-old servant
Yasha a young footman
A stranger
The stationmaster
A post-office clerk
Guests
(stress marks on names are not part of the spelling but guides for pronunciation)
Over for questions →
Anton Chekhov
The Cherry Orchard
A Comedy in Four Acts
Reading note: kvac /kvas/ is a Russian soft drink
made of fermented bread (bread soda?). We can try
some if you would like!! It is actually refreshing
(though perhaps an acquired taste).
Prepare written answers with page numbers
cited for the following questions:
1.
Identify each main character’s idiosyncrasy.
2.
What was the state of Russia when this play was
written? Any connections you can make to the play?
(refer to the background handout)
3.
What classes do the characters represent?
4.
What does Chekhov convey about social classes,
especially the aristocracy and the intelligentsia?
5.
What roles does the cherry orchard play? Consider:
setting, plot, theme, character and symbolism.
6.
How does this play work as a comedy?
7.
Choose a passage and do a close reading of it.
8.
Choose a scene you would be especially interested in
seeing performed. Why?