The Cherry Orchard was at first only a mediocre success. Stanislavsky, the Moscow Art Theater's director, had insisted on playing the piece as a social tragedy as a depressing drama of the passing of the old order. The critics had followed Stanislavsky's lead in this interpretation and found the play tedious. Apparently in later performances the Art Theater modified its interpretation, and when the play opened in Petersburg on April 2, 1904, it was a great success. The Cherry Orchard has stayed in the Art Theater's repertoire and remains one of its most popular productions. Today it is the most widely known, internationally, of Chekhov's plays, and as his last play, it stands as his final dramatic statement.( Field, Bradford S.)
That anyone could have interpreted The Cherry Orchard as a somber tragedy is remarkable in light of the numerous comic characterizations we are given in the first act alone. At the very outset we see Dunyasha, a maid, attempting to imitate a delicate lady. Her hands shake, she pretends she is going to faint, she does herself up like a lady of leisure. And Dunyasha's suitor, the ludicrously verbose Epihodoff, is a comic character of farcical dimensions.
The major characters themselves, whom we are invited to take seriously, are riddled with quirks and absurdities. Gayeff has grown so foolish that at fifty-one one almost thinks him senile. He is forever popping hard candies in his mouth, and from nowhere will suddenly enact an imaginary billiards game. In the middle of a sentence he will interrupt with: "I cut into the side pocket." Gayeff talks too much, to the point of prattling. At one point his sentiment so carries him away that he addresses a long and meaningless speech to an old bookcase. (Field, Bradford S.)
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