The melancholy overtones we associate with the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov present unique difficulties to anyone seeking to turn his plays into unambiguously happy ones. Chekhov himself considered his final masterpiece, “The Cherry Orchard,” to be a comedy, though clearly not a balls-to-the-wall laugh riot. But ever since its first director, the brilliant Konstantin Stanislavsky, chose to emphasize its tragic qualities, The Cherry Orchard has been at best a bittersweet experience for audiences.
We are almost as strongly opposed to bittersweetness in art and literature as we are to undiluted bile and bitterness. The trick in adjusting the Cherry Orchard to suit our preference for happy endings is to preserve the humor, romance, and comedy that are found throughout it while excising the overarching sense of fin de siecle sadness. It’s a delicate operation, like removing a tumor wrapped around the nerves of the spinal column. And for such a procedure we need our finest tools, in this case, a buried treasure.
Here’s how our happily ended version of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” would go:
Madame Ranevsky and her daughter, Anya, return home from Paris to find that their family estate is about to be sold at auction for debt. To all the family it is quite unthinkable that they should lose the wonderful cherry orchard whose white blooms are part of their childhood memories. Madame Ranevsky is an irresponsible soul who cannot be made to realize the value of money. Her brother, Gaev, is quite as hopeless where money is concerned. Varya, the step-daughter, is the only practical one, but how can a woman raise money?
Lopahkin, a former serf, has become a wealthy landowner. Out of his admiration for Madame Ranevsky and a genuine affection that remains from childhood days, he suggests that if they will tear down the house and raze the cherry orchard, they can cut the property up into the popular new villa sites. The entire property, he assures them, will promptly be leased and the substantial income it will afford will enable them to live where and as they please.
Family pride combined with a spirit of procrastination prevents their accepting this suggestion even if their fondness for their cherry orchard would permit their considering its destruction. They continue to believe that some miracle will save their orchard. Thus they drift along until the day set for the sale. Grandmother has sent them fifteen hundred pounds and Lopahkin, the friendly former serf, suggests that this money be used to prevent the sale of the estate. But instead of using the money to redeem the house and orchard from debt, in typically impractical fashion Madame Ranevsky embarks upon a building project, erecting a summer house from which to view the orchard in bloom. Varya protests but her step-mother is determined.
The family’s lifelong retainer, Firs, begins to excavate the ground for the foundation for the summer house. As the family argues over Madame Ranevsky’s plans, the sound of the pickaxe breaking the ground rings in the distance. Suddenly the sound stops and the family falls silent. A moment later, Firs appears, out of breath, and announces that he has discovered a chest full of jewels and golden roubles buried at the site of the summer house. He shows a few handfuls of the treasure to the astonished group. Madame Ranevsky pledges to share her new wealth with all of the members of her family but first Gaev must buy back her home, which he does with the help of the worldly Lophakin who advises Gaev at the sale.
With the home and orchard secured for posterity, the characters move on with their lives. Madame Ranevsky prepares to return to Paris now even wealthier than before; Gaev intends to retire to the estate, complete the building of the summer house, and collect stamps; Varya, as a rich heiress, now has high hopes of finding a husband. Trofimov, the former tutor and “perpetual student,” prepares to return to his beloved university. Even young Anya looks forward to taking her independent place in the world. So they separate … each one intent on his own future. At the last, with characteristic inefficiency, they lock the old manservant, Firs, in the house, believing that he has already been sent to the hospital. Happily, the leave him with a bottle of his beloved pepper vodka. The only sound as the curtain falls is the ringing of pickaxes continuing the excavation and search for more treasure near the cherry orchard.
THE END
