Review: The Orchard at Malthouse

Review by Greg Gorton

The Cherry Orchard is a play with a strange history. It was written after the supposed emancipation of Russian slaves, during the time of a growing merchant class, and just before a communist revolution. Chekhov saw it as a farce, Stanislavsky a tragedy, and every director since a conundrum. It is reported that some of the original audiences cheered when the orchard was felled, the “clever businessman” made richer, and the aristocrats sent packing.

Knowing a little about Pony Cam before entering the Beckett theatre, I expected their adaptation to be far removed from Stanislavsky's original, and far less supportive of early capitalist interpretations. However, I was unprepared for how The Orchard could be used to remind us that earth isn’t an asset, and neither are our loved ones. I was unprepared for a show where half the cast were audience members, and where Pony Cam attempted to fund themselves with gambling. I wasn’t prepared for conversations about the loss of community, and I wasn’t prepared for an honest interrogation of arts funding. There is more to life than money, but only this show properly captures why it is so easy to forget that.

The first thing I noticed when taking a seat was just how conventional the set appeared. A black raised stage surrounded by a naturalistic setting of furniture draped in sheets. An introduction warned that this isn’t your typical adaptation, and then….in a way…. It started with an opening like most other versions of this play - the sound of trains, smoke, and personable chaos.

The sound and lighting of Pony Cam’s The Orchard is busy but far from chaotic. Harrie Hogan offers us bright helpful visual aids in dealing with the constant melee on stage, pulling back the outer layers of action, spotlighting the “lectures” and even offering little touches of diegetic lighting. While some music was perhaps too loud, drowning out the energetic shouts towards the end of the show, the emotional effect it had was quite profound. Sometimes the exact words aren’t important in getting a meaning across. It is worth noting that there is quite a bit of smoke and strobe lighting in this show. While this would not be bothersome to a general audience member, anyone sensitive should come prepared.

Like much in this production, Sophie Woodward’s costume design is multi-faceted. While the ensemble wore a “uniform” of sorts, it was complemented (as were the “volunteer players”’ own clothing) with the sort of choices a community theatre troupe might be able to make. Many faux furs, many crazy hats. This “cheap” design is practical, fulfils a superficial semiotic purpose, and helps us easily remember a core comment this show makes - that art and money shouldn’t mix.

It could be said that three separate productions exist in The Orchard. On the outskirts, a stage drama filled with amateurs (literally stolen from the audience) that reflect the many side plots of the original play. On the black platform a series of skits, duologues, monologues, physical stunts, dance, and everything you might expect from a postmodern experimental group. And finally, a podium, a tree stump on which people stand to give lectures, filled with numbers and almost-dry analysis.

In The Orchard, these are not three separate things. They speak to each other, illustrate each other, comment on each other. The audience members are a commentary on the expectation of slave labour, the lecture a highlight of the numbers we talk about when discussing real estate, businesses, and even humans in monetary terms. And finally, those on stage - sweating blood for their paycheck but also forcing us to confront quite intimate and emotional stories that come out of a broken system.

While all aspects of The Orchard work, it's in these latter moments I think it most excels. Most productions of Chekhov's play do little to properly explore how the play explores love and relationships, but Pony Cam has clearly decided it is the most important theme - that our emotions, our relationships, and our experiences cannot be untangled from the problem of capitalism. How can we become close neighbours, they ask, if people have to constantly move for cheaper housing or better jobs? How can we not see ourselves as our paycheck when the majority of the time we spend awake is on trying to make that paycheck? How do we love when love is so difficult to make a priority?

Pony Cam also goes where a lot of artists fear to go - they look at themselves. They “openly” talk about the fact that “if only the rich can pick cherries and only the rich eat cherries, then what is the point of cherries”. If you miss the point, replace “cherries” with “art”. And then appreciate that these graduates of VCA have called out themselves, their entire opening night audience, and the system is only getting worse. It should be of no surprise to know Chekhov (like Bulgakov later) was a doctor. Pony Cam may labour on this point a little too long, and doesn't quite take the risk of offering a solution, though the answer is obvious - the cherry eaters should try apples more often.

Many aspects of this show are predictable (by Pony Cam standards). There's tree chopping, and very messy stunts that leave champagne, coffee, wood, and scratchie tickets everywhere. There is a long, LONG, dance number that proves their stamina is as high as when I saw them last (on a treadmill for 45 minutes). While predictable in their “strangeness”, they stand out for their lack of gimmicks. While no guns appear on stage, they very much believe in Chekhov's… if there is a prop, a person, a sound cue in this performance, it has meaning and connection to the whole. There are also small nods that only a complete nerd would realise, like those amateur players offering a very close facsimile to an abridged version of the play. And were those sweets cherry Twizzlers?

You don’t need to have known The Cherry Orchard to enjoy this adaptation. However, even though you will be prepared for wild shenanigans, it’s worth also preparing yourself for some tough conversations about art, love, and where we are all heading if this goes on any longer. Pony Cam’s The Orchard is a masterpiece of manipulation that leaves you close to overwhelmed, but forced to look at your priorities in a new light.

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