A new translation by Simon Stephens resulted in a no interval reduced version of this classic. I thought it worked well but somehow lacked the richness one might have expected of a classic. Maybe something went missing in the reduction. Nonetheless the tale of the stubborn resistance to even well-intentioned new money by the down at heal aristocrats was well-conveyed and the set intoned the oppressive parochialism of the old house in the country. It reminded me of some of the characters in the Kentish village where I grew up. Most tantalising to me was the refusal to consider a rexcue plan that would involve the cutting down of the treasured orchard in favour of a non-rescue plan that had the same result. The implication that it is harder to live amongst one's compromises than to be exiled from them perhaps attests to the mind's ability to move on if the body has done likewise.
The ending of this particular production did not quite work for me. Firs shuffling around the locked up house seemed in this production to have been all but murdered by Yasha, the duplicitous love them and leave them manservant of the mistress of the house.
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