Drama SNT Maribor

Translator Milan Jesih
Director Gábor Tompa
Dramaturg Georges Banu
Set and Costume Designer Carmencita Brojboiu
Choreographer Cleopatra Purice
Language Consultant Metka Damjan
Music Selection Davor Herga and Gábor Tompa
Lighting Designers Gábor Tompa and Tomaž Bezjak

Cast
Ksenija Mišič
Ana Urbanc
Mojca Simonič
Aleš Valič
Kristijan Ostanek
Matija Stipanič
Vlado Novak
Maša Žilavec
Davor Herga
Mateja Pucko
Ivo Ban
Nejc Ropret
Viktor Meglič
Irena Mihelič
Mirjana Šajinović

The Cherry Orchard is not only Anton Chekhov’s (1860-1904) swan song, a conclusion of his artistic life and life mission, but also a forecast of the ending of an era. The atmosphere of a vanishing world of old and tree felling, leaving behind nothing but nostalgic memories and emptied lives, hangs in the air like a sword of Damocles. Chekhov’s precise and sharp cuts expose everything and everyone revealing disparities between ideals and capital, illusion and reality, a gap between a search for love and memories and oblivion. This makes The Cherry Orchard one of the most thrilling plays of the 20th century. In Chekhov, a banal reality is concealed under a gentle poetry, while melancholic symbolism hides a painful truth. Using humour and satire, the Russian master painted the situation of a person at a turning point in life. Chekhov was one of the few authors who knew how to cry and laugh at the same time, which is why he subtitled The Cherry Orchard as a comedy.

The director of the SNT Drama Maribor production is Gábor Tompa, a Romanian director, professor at the University of California, San Diego, artistic director of the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj, whose insightful productions have enraptured audiences and critics worldwide.