The Cherry Orchard
After long years spent in exile in Paris, Lyubov, a strange and elusive woman, returns to her ancestral estate, about to be sold to pay off the family’s debts. As the centre around which the play revolves, forever oscillating between tragedy and comedy, this maternal figure, this mater dolorosa, played by Isabelle Huppert, returns to a family unsettled by the future of the estate, and more largely, by that of this world she left behind. Modern society, with its social changes, is right around the corner, noisily announcing its arrival. When he thinks of 'The Cherry Orchard', Tiago Rodrigues has a secret tempo in mind, allegro vivace, and is convinced that the Russian master’s last play is about the energy with which “the inescapable power of change” propels the characters from one act to the next. If, along with his cast and crew, he decided to explore the anxiety, reactions, and counter-reactions this change causes, he also wanted to study the hopes any new world carries within in, even as no one can truly understand them yet. In Chekhov’s words, the director found precious material with which to fuel his dramatic machine, break the fourth wall, and bring the audience together around the great challenges of today.
Text Francis Cossu for the 75th edition of the Festival d’Avignon (Translated by Gaël Schmidt-Cléach)
Credits:
Text: Anton Tchekhov
Translation: André Markowicz, Françoise Morvan
Direction: Tiago Rodrigues
With: Isabelle Huppert, Adama Diop, Alex Descas, Alison Valence, David Geselson, Grégoire Monsaingeon, Isabel Abreu, Marcel Bozonnet, Nadim Ahmed, Océane Caïraty, Suzanne Aubert, Tom Adjibi and Hélder Gonçalves, Manuela Azevedo (musicians)
Música: Hélder Gonçalves (composição), Tiago Rodrigues (letras)
Stage design: Fernando Ribeiro
Costumes: José António Tenente
Light: Nuno Meira
Sound: Pedro Costa
Make-up and hair: Jocelyne Milazzo, Sylvie Cailler
Artistic collaboration: Magda Bizarro
Assistant director: Ilyas Mettioui
Set construction: Workshops of Festival d’Avignon
Costumes made by: Workshops of Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne
Production: Festival d’Avignon
Coproduction: Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne, Comédie de Genève, La Coursive, scène nationale de la Rochelle, Wiener Festwochen, Comédie de Clermont Ferrand, National Taichung Theater, Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Nazionale, Fondazione Campania Dei Festival – Compania Teatro Festival, Théâtre de Liège, Holland Festival, International Theater Amsterdam
Residency: La FabricA – Festival d’Avignon, l’Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe
With the support of: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, DC&J Création, Tax Shelter of Federal Government of Belgium and Inver Tax Shelter
Recommended age: 12+
Duration: 2h30 (aprox.)
Show premiered at 5 July 2021, during the 75th Festival d’Avignon (France)
Tour dates:
18 - 19 April 2025: Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts, Nanjing - Jiangsu (China)
25 - 27 April 2025: National Center for Performing Arts, Beijing (China)
More information:
Anne-Mathilde Di Tomaso – Festival d’Avignon
anne-mathilde.di-tomaso@festival-avignon.com
Léa Dony – Festival d’Avignon
lea.dony@festival-avignon.com
Photograph: © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d’Avignon
