Theater: “The Cherry Orchard” @ St. Ann’s Warehouse

Just when you think Chekov’s work has been staged every way possible, along comes the Donmar Warehouse production of “The Cherry Orchard.” It’s like being hit over the head with a samovar.

In “Orchard,” Madame Ranevskaya (Nina Hiss) the head of a once-wealthy but careless family, visits her estate after five years in Paris, and realizes that it must be sold to settle debts. She, her brother Leonid (Michael Gould) and her longtime staff are at the mercy of Lopahkin (the excellent Adeel Akhtar), a vulgar businessman who is basically a 21st-century Russian oligarch—only two centuries early.

Rather than Ranevskaya commanding the stage (as Irene Worth and others have typically done), this production feels more egalitarian. Directed and written by Benedict Andrew, it has kept up with the times, all right: the characters appear in modern dress, suck on Chupa Chup lollipops, vape, and boogie at an on-stage party to a rock band.

This production also weaves in several contemporary talking points (the 1 %, climate change, social-justice warriors), mostly delivered by the angry, disheveled young student Trofimov (a superb Daniel Monks). At one point he shouts, “We’re being held hostage by a quasi-fascist tech oligarchy while they amass obscene wealth, rob the rest of us blind, so they can fly off to Mars leaving us on a dead planet.” This practically caused a standing ovation from the audience, many of whom were undoubtedly members of the Park Slope Food coop.

While the ensemble is excellent, Akhtar however deserves a special call-out for his performance as Lopahkin, particularly for his ability to run up and down the bleachers—joyful at having bought the cherry orchard at auction, which he plans to bulldoze and subdivide. Josh Adler gives a very touching turn as a homeless boy, singing John Prine’s “Angel of Montgomery:” “Just give me one thing/That I can hold on to.”

This lyric in particular has Ranevskaya sobbing as her own world crumbles. Depending on how you feel about this interpretation of Chekhov, you may react similarly. At St. Anne’s Warehouse, Brooklyn through April 27.

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