Anton Chekhov

Madame Ranevskaya returns from Paris to the family estate, which is mortgaged and about to be auctioned. The cherry orchard, famous in the district and mentioned in the encyclopaedia, is the family's identity and their only asset. Lopakhin, a merchant whose father and grandfather were serfs on this land, repeatedly offers a practical solution: cut down the orchard, divide the land into plots, lease them for summer cottages. The family cannot take the suggestion seriously — it is vulgar — and instead reminisce, argue about philosophy, hold a party, and do nothing. The estate is auctioned during the party; Lopakhin buys it himself and, drunk with the reversal, describes his ancestors watching. The family leaves, the old servant Firs is accidentally locked in the empty house, and an axe begins on the orchard.

Chekhov called it a comedy; Stanislavsky staged it as a tragedy, and the disagreement between author and director is the standard entry point to the play. Its dramaturgy discards the machinery Ibsen perfected: nothing is decided on stage, the significant event happens offstage, and characters talk past one another in what became known as subtext — the real meaning sitting under dialogue about coffee and the weather. His principle that a gun on the wall in act one must be fired by act three is quoted constantly, usually without noticing how carefully he limits its scope. In the stories, the same method produces the modern short story: no moral, no resolution, a life illuminated at an oblique angle and then left.