class="">Elizaveta Boyarskaya: „People never remember and never value their own history“

Lev Dodin said that today the play “Cherry Orchard” has absolutely new meanings and makes us see many things in a different light. What is the Cherry Orchard for you personally?

For Varya the cherry orchard is the souvenir of the past happy life that used to bloom here in the estate like this orchard once. Now the orchard hardly bears any fruit but giving it up is unimaginable and leaving this house that used to be the place of that happy life is unimaginable. The family’s whole life has taken place here, but this house and this orchard are worthless now, it has any sense and value only to Ranevskaya’s family members/ sentimental value. For realistic outsiders who live in the today the cherry orchard is just useless trees that have to be chopped down to clear the space for new ideas and new plans. But it’s still the most beautiful thing in the region.

For me personally the cherry orchard, the house of Ranevskaya’s family is like… When we rehearsed we used an example: it’s like somebody says to you “I think that the Hermitage should be demolished and instead we should build a new entertainment complex in its place. We’ll also build several hotels to attract the tourists”. And I personally can not understand how anyone could even suggest such a thing / but the person who’s suggesting it can not understand my indignation. In rehearsal we discussed a lot that the cherry orchard for the family is this great amazing precious entity / but for an outsider who does not get spiritual values and who thinks only about economic gain the cherry orchard is nothing. Also, of course people never remember and never value their own history. Hermitage, the cherry orchard are the history, the history of the nation, and when something is so easily destroyed / the orchard, the house, memories / it signifies absolute lack of understanding that this orchard has a history, that it is in fact the history of this family. So easy to forget, so easy to step over. Our history is full of repeating itself, endlessly, because no one can accumulate and use previous experience. Everyone is trying to build something new, to change everything, to do something new, but we don’t really see that we are walking in a circle stepping on the same rakes because we forget our own history.

Varya is torn between her love and the roots of her family which is irrevocably tied to the estate that is being sold. How do you see your character? What is her choice?

Varya is indeed torn, she tries to preserve what can not be saved / the estate is falling apart, even if Lopahin did not buy it, it would have crumbled itself. The family would have had to leave this estate anyway. Saving the estate is impossible but everyone who loves it can not put up with this. They keen hoping in vain. Varya knows about Lopahin’s plan, knows it’s the rational thing to do but she still does not consider his plan an option. Varya’s ideal would be if Lopahin married her and invested money into saving the estate / but for many reasons this is also not an option, just a dream.

Varya sees that Lopahin is obsessed with this horrible plan / to but the estate and destroy it, to chop down the cherry trees. Varya does not dare to tell Lopahin that even if he achieves that and earns a lot of money he still will not find happiness. Even if she said that, he wouldn’t hear her / he’s too taken with his idea. Varya can not stop him, she can not really tell him “this is not the way, why don’t you marry me and we find a way together”. She just defends this estate with her remaining strength, she tries to create order, she works alone and for everyone in this house. But all her efforts are in vain / there’s no going backwards.

 Is it hard to act with the audience sitting so close to you? The audience, sitting so close for this performance, is the symbol of the Cherry Orchard for you? Or the symbol of the new life that is going to supplant the Cherry Orchard?

It’s hard only the first time, then you get used to it. It does not distract me at all. To me, the audience are sort of observers from another time, and each of them has a chance to realize the justice of Lopahin’s words: that life has to change someday, that someday people will stop suffering. All of us / though we are not the characters of “Cherry Orchard”- have reasons to sit down and say “in 200-300 years life is bound to change, everything will be different, everything will be better”. I’m sure that in 200-300 years / if people still remember who Chekhov was / the people of the future will say the same things about their own future. That’s human nature to hope. Feelings are the same, emotions are the same, and history unfortunately repeats itself.

You’ve performed your “Cherry Orchard” in Europe and in USA.  And in Romania the audience is looking forward to seeing the performance. How does the audience influence you when you perform abroad? Is there a big difference between the Russian and foreign audiences?

I don’t really see a difference. Chekhov is equally understood everywhere. It’s kind of not surprising / the moment the audience identifies with the situation, they respond to Chekhov / to his particular mild humour, to his compassion to human beings, to easily recognizable feelings and emotion / these feelings and emotions are not attributed to a particular nationality or language, they are just universally human. Suddenly we onstage and the audience / both in Russia and abroad - realizes that in spite of historical time or geography human beings are always faced with the same core problems. This unites us all / and Chekhov was an unparalleled master of pointing out what unites people.

You’ve visited Romania with other performances. What can you say about Romanian audiences?

What a lovely question! I’ve been to Bucharest with “King Lear” and “Life and Fate”. I remember that the audience was very welcoming and theatrically educated. You can feel the Romanian audience has seen a lot of good theatre and knows a lot about theatre. Or maybe we’ve just always been luck and that only theatre festivals with experienced and welcoming audiences invite us on tour to Romania. I’ve never felt not understood when acting on stage in Romania.