An Elegant Trip Into Chekhov’s ‘Orchard’

Michele Farr is beautifully luminous as the generous Ranyevskaya. She understands noblesse oblige, but not the economics of hard reality. Francoise Giroday plays her brother, Gayev, as a slightly annoying, but sweetly ineffectual snob in a well-acted, elegant production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” at the Interact Theatre.

Well-dressed and socially smooth, these siblings recoil from the brutally blunt Lopakhin (Joel Anderson). Yet both Gayev and Lopakhin are impractical dreamers in different ways.

Chekhov subtitled this play a comedy in four acts. Certainly all the comedic elements are there--the senile valet (Neil Vipond), the vain servant (James Calvert), the foolishly romantic housekeeper (Sione Owen) and the mooching neighbor (James Harper). But they play against the tragedy of a dying system.

Allison Comin-Richmond’s translation is sometimes wordy and doesn’t always convincingly distinguish the classes. Although Comin-Richmond makes Lopakhin’s age vague, director Joel Swetow clarifies his failure to propose to Ranyevskaya’s adopted daughter, the sensible Varya (Christal Lockwood). He loves the mother, and the glamour of the fallen aristocracy still enchants him.

Shon LeBlanc’s detailed costume design and Ron Wyand’s sound design add complexity that enhances the simple sets by Bradley Kaye and the suggested presence of trees produced by J. Kent Inasy’s lighting.

*

* “The Cherry Orchard,” Interact Theatre Company, 11855 Hart St., North Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends May 2. $16-$20. (818) 773-7862. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.