The Plays of Anton Chekhov Read online

  KULYGIN: She’s off!

  [Offstage the band plays a march; everyone listens.]

  OLGA: They’re going.

  [Enter CHEBUTYKIN.]

  MASHA: Our friends are leaving. Well, there we are ... I hope they have a good journey! [To her husband] We must go home ... Where are my hat and cloak?

  KULYGIN: I took them into the house ... I’ll fetch them right away. [Goes out into the house.]

  OLGA: Yes, we can all go home now. It’s time.

  CHEBUTYKIN: Olga Sergeyevna!

  OLGA: What?

  [A pause.]

  What is it?

  CHEBUTYKIN: Nothing ... I don’t know how to tell you ... [Whispers in her ear.]

  OLGA [in alarm]: It’s not possible!

  CHEBUTYKIN: Yes ... that’s how it is ... I’m worn out, I’ve had a terrible time, I don’t want to say more ... [With irritation] Besides, what can it matter!

  MASHA: What’s happened?

  OLGA [embracing Irina]: Today is a terrible day ... My darling, I don’t know how to tell you ...

  IRINA: What? Tell me quickly, what is it? For God’s sake! [Cries.]

  CHEBUTYKIN: The Baron was killed just now in a duel.

  IRINA: I knew it, I knew it ...

  CHEBUTYKIN [sitting down on a bench at the back of the stage]: I’m worn out ... [Takes a newspaper out of his pocket.] Let them have a little cry ... [Singing softly] Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay ... ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay ... What can it all matter!

  [The three sisters stand clinging to one another.]

  MASHA: Listen to the band playing! They’re leaving us, one of them has gone for good, for ever, we will be left alone to begin our life anew. We must live ... We must live ...

  IRINA [putting her head on Olga’s breast]: A time will come and everyone will know the reason for all of this, all this suffering, there will be no secrets, but for the time being we must live ... we must work, just work! Tomorrow I will leave alone, I will teach in the school, and I will give away my whole life to those who perhaps need it. It’s autumn now, soon winter will come and cover everything with snow, and I will work, I will work ...

  OLGA [embracing both her sisters]: The band is playing so gaily and cheerfully, it makes one want to live! My God! Time will pass and we will be gone for ever, they’ll forget us, forget our faces, our voices and how many there were of us, but for those who live after us our sufferings will become joy - happiness and peace will come down on earth, and there’ll be a kind word and a blessing for those who are living now. Dear sisters, our life is not yet over. We shall live! The band is playing so gaily, so joyfully, and I think in a little while we too will know why we live, why we suffer ... If we only knew, if we only knew!

  [The music of the band comes more and more faintly; KULYGIN, smiling and cheerful, brings in Masha’s hat and cloak, ANDREY wheels the pram with Bobik sitting in it.]

  CHEBUTYKIN [sings softly]: Ta-ra ... ra ... boom-de-ay ... ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay ... [Reads the paper.] What can it matter! What can it matter!

  OLGA: If we only knew, if we only knew!

  [Curtain.]

  The Cherry Orchard

  A Comedy in Four Acts

  CHARACTERS

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA RANEVSKAYA [also LYUBA], a landowner

  ANY A [also ANECHKA], her daughter, aged seventeen

  VARYA [also VARVARA MI KHAYLOVNA], her adopted daughter, aged twenty-four

  LEONID ANDREYEVICH GAYEV [also LYONYA], Ranevskaya’s brother

  YERMOLAY ALEKSEYEVICH LOPAKHIN, a merchant

  PYOTR SERGEYEVICH TROFIMOV [also PETYA], a student

  BORIS BORISOVICH SIMEONOV-PISHCHIK, a landowner

  CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA, a governess

  SEMYON PANTELEYEVICH YEPIKHODOV, a clerk

  DUNYASHA [also AVDOTYA FYODOROVNA], a maid

  FIRS,1 a manservant, an old man of eighty-seven

  YASHA, a young manservant

  A PASSER-BY

  A STATION-MASTER

  A Post Office official

  Guests, servants

  The action takes place on L. A. Ranevskaya’s estate.

  Act One

  A room which is still called the ‘nursery’. One of the doors leads to Anya’s room. Dawn; it will soon be sunrise. It is May and the cherry trees are in bloom, but out in the orchard it is cold, with a morning frost. The windows of the room are shut.

  [Enter DUNYASHA with a candle and LOPAKHIN with a book in his hand.]

  LOPAKHIN: The train has come, thank God. What time is it?

  DUNYASHA : It’s almost two. [Puts out the candle.] It’s light already.

  LOPAKHIN : How late is the train? Two hours, at least. [Yawns and stretches.] I’m a fine example, what a stupid thing I’ve done! I came here specially to meet them at the station and then I went and overslept ... I went to sleep sitting in a chair. How annoying ... You could have woken me up.

  DUNYASHA : I thought you’d left. [Listens.] I think they’re coming now.

  LOPAKHIN [listening] : No. They’ve got to get the luggage, and this and that ...

  [A pause.]

  Lyubov Andreyevna has lived abroad for five years, I wonder what she’s like now ... She’s a good person. An easy, simple person. I remember, when I was a lad of fifteen, my old father — he had a shop here in the village then — punched me in the face, my nose bled ... We’d come here together for some reason, into the yard, and he was drunk. Lyubov Andreyevna, I remember, was still very young and so thin, she brought me to the washstand in this very room, in the nursery. ‘Don’t cry, little muzhik,’1 she said, ‘it’ll be all right by your wedding-day ...’

  [A pause.]

  Little muzhik ... Yes, my father was a muzhik and here I am in white gloves and yellow shoes. A pig in a baker’s shop ... But though I’m rich and have a lot of money, if you think a moment and work it out, I’m muzhik through and through ... [Leafs through the pages of his book.] I was reading this book and understood nothing. I read and I fell asleep.

  [A pause.]

  DUNYASHA: But the dogs didn’t sleep all night, they sense their mistress is coming.

  LOPAKHIN : What’s the matter with you, Dunyasha ...

  DUNYASHA : My hands are shaking. I’m going to faint.

  LOPAKHIN : What a very refined thing you are, Dunyasha. And you dress like a young lady, and do your hair like one too. You shouldn’t. One should remember one’s place.

  [Enter YEPIKHODOV with a bouquet of flowers; he is wearing a jacket and highly polished boots, which squeak loudly; as he comes in he drops the bouquet.]

  YEPIKHODOV [picking up the bouquet] : The gardener sent these in, he says to put them in the dining-room. [Gives the bouquet to Dunyasha.]

  LOPAKHIN : And you’ll bring me some kvass.2

  DUNYASHA : Yes, sir. [Exit.]

  YEPIKHODOV: There’s a morning frost now, three degrees, and the cherry’s all in blossom. I cannot approve of our climate. [Sighs.] I just can’t. Our climate cannot be conducive to the moment. Now, Yermolay Alekseich, may I also tell you, the day before yesterday I bought myself some boots, and I can assure you they squeak really quite impossibly. What should I put on them?

  LOPAKHIN: Lay off. You’re becoming a pest.

  YEPIKHODOV : Every day I have some accident. And I don’t complain, I’ve got accustomed to it and I even smile.

  [Enter DUNYASHA, she serves Lopakhin some kvass.]

  I’ll go. [Bumps into a chair, which falls over.] There, you can see how I’m circumstanced, if you’ll excuse the phrase ... It’s simply extraordinary, even! [Goes out.]

  DUNYASHA: I have to tell you, Yermolay Alekseyich, Yepikhodov proposed to me.

  LOPAKHIN: Oh!

  DUNYASHA : I don’t know quite ... He’s a quiet fellow, only sometimes when he begins to speak, you can’t understand anything. He talks well, with feeling, only you can’t understand. I sort of like him. He’s madly in love with me. He’s an unlucky fellow, there’s something every day. To tease him we call him The Walki
ng Accident ...

  LOPAKHIN [listening] : There, I think they’re coming ...

  DUNYASHA: They’re coming! What’s the matter with me ... I’ve gone all cold.

  LOPAKHIN: They’re coming, really. Let’s go and meet them. Will she recognize me? We haven’t met for five years.

  DUNYASHA [in a state ofemotion]: I’m going to faint now ... Oh, I’m going to faint!

  [There is the sound of two carriages driving up to the house. LOPAKHIN and DUNYASHA quickly go out. The stage is empty. A noise starts in the rooms next door. FIRS, who has been to meet Lyubov Andreyevna, hurries across the stage, leaning on a stick; he is wearing an old-fashioned livery and a tall hat; he is saying something to himself but not a single word is intelligible. The noise offstage is increasing all the time. A voice says: ‘Let’s go in here...’ LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA, ANYA and CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA with a little dog on a chain, all in travelling clothes, VARYA in a coat and headscarf, GAYEV, SIMEONOV-PISHCHIK, LOPAKHIN, DUNYASHA with a package and an umbrella, servants with luggage — all cross the room.]

  ANYA: Let’s go in here. Mama, do you remember what room this is?

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA [happily, with tears in her eyes]: The nursery!

  VARYA : It’s so cold, my hands have gone numb. [To Lyubov Andreyevna ] Mamochka, your rooms, the white one and the violet, have stayed just the same.

  LYUSOV ANDREYEVNA: The nursery, my dear, is a lovely room ... I slept here when I was a little girl ... [Cries.] And now I feel like a little girl again ... [Kisses her brother, then Varya, then her brother again.] And Varya is just the same as before, she looks like a nun ... And I recognized Dunyasha ... [Kisses Dunyasha.]

  GAYEV: The train was two hours late. How on earth? What kind of a system is that?

  CHARLOTTA [to Pishchik]: My dog loves nuts.

  PISHCHIK [in astonishment] : Imagine that!

  [All go out except ANYA and DUNYASHA.]

  DUNYASHA : We waited and waited ... [Takes off ‘Anya’s coat and hat.]

  ANYA: I couldn’t sleep on the journey, for four nights ... I’m frozen through.

  DUNYASHA : You left during Lent. It was snowy and freezing then, and now? My darling! [Laughs and kisses her.] I’ve been waiting a long time for you, my joy, light of my life ... I must tell you now, I can’t hold out one minute more ...

  ANYA [feebly]: Not more ...

  DUNYASHA: Just after Holy Week Yepikhodov the clerk proposed to me.

  ANYA : You’re always on about the same thing ... [Adjusting her hair.] I’ve lost all my hairpins ... [She is exhausted, to the point of tottering.]

  DUNYASHA : I don’t really know what to think. He loves me, he loves me so much!

  ANYA [looking at the door of her room, tenderly] : My room, my windows, just as if I’d never gone away. I’m home! Tomorrow morning I’ll get up, I’ll run into the orchard ... Oh if only I could get to sleep! I didn’t sleep the entire journey, I was worrying away.

  DUNYASHA : The day before yesterday Pyotr Sergeich came.

  ANYA [joyfully]: Petya!

  DUNYASHA : He’s sleeping in the bath-house, that’s where he’s staying. He says he’s afraid of being in the way. [Lookingat her pocket watch.] I should wake him up, only Varvara Mikhaylovna told me not to. Don’t you go and wake him, she said.

  [Enter VARYA, on her belt is a bunch of keys.]

  VARYA: Dunyasha, coffee quickly ... Mamochka is asking for coffee.

  DUNYASHA: Right away. [Goes out.]

  VARYA: Well, thank God, you’ve all got here. You’re home again. [Affictionately] My darling has come! My beauty has come!

  ANYA: What I’ve had to put up with.

  VARYA: I can imagine!

  ANYA : We left in Holy Week, it was cold then. Charlotta talked and did conjuring tricks the whole way. Why did you go and dump Charlotta on me ...

  VARYA: You can’t travel alone, darling. Not at seventeen!

  ANYA: We arrive in Paris, it’s cold there, it’s snowing. My French is terrible. Mama is living five floors up, I go to her, there are some Frenchmen with her, some ladies, an old Reverend Father with his little book, and it’s all full of smoke and uncomfortable. I suddenly felt sorry for Mama, so sorry, I took her head in my arms, I held it, and I couldn’t let go. Later Mama was very loving and cried ...

  VARYA [with tears in her eyes] : Don’, don’t ...

  ANYA: She’d already sold her villa near Mentone, she had nothing left, nothing. I hadn’t a kopeck left either, we barely got there. And Mama didn’t understand! We’d sit down to dinner in the station and she’d order the most expensive thing and tip the waiters a rouble each. Charlotta the same. Yasha too ordered for himself, it was simply terrible. Mama has this manservant Yasha, we’ve brought him here ...

  VARYA: I saw the creature.

  ANYA: So, how are things? Have you paid the interest?

  VARYA : Of course not.

  ANYA: My God, my God ...

  VARYA: The estate will be up for sale in August.

  ANYA: My God ...

  LOPAKHIN [looking in at the door and mooing like a cow] : Meh-eh-eh ... [Goes out.]

  VARYA [with tears in her eyes] : I want to hit him like this ... [Shakes her fist.]

  ANYA [hugging Varya, quietly]: Varya, has he proposed? [VARYA shakes her head.] But he loves you ... Why don’t you have it out together, what are you waiting for?

  VARYA: I don’t think anything will work out for us. He’s very busy, he hasn’t time for me ... and doesn’t pay me any attention. Good luck to him, I can’t stand seeing him ... Everyone talks about our wedding, everyone offers their congratulations, and in fact there isn’t anything, it’s all like a dream ... [In a different tone of voice] You’ve got a little brooch, a bee.

  ANYA [sadly]: Mama bought it. [Goes to her room, talking gaily, like a child.] In Paris I went up in a hot-air balloon!

  VARYA: My darling has come! My beauty has come!

  [DUNYASHA has already come back with the coffee-pot and is making coffee.]

  [Stands by the door.] Darling, all day I go about my work round the house and all the time I’m dreaming. Marry you to a rich man and then I’d be at peace, I’d go to a convent, then to Kiev ... to Moscow, and so I’d go off round the holy places ... From place to place. Bliss! ...

  ANYA : The birds are singing in the orchard. What’s the time now?

  VARYA : It must be after two. It’s time for you to be asleep, darling. [Going into Anya’s room.] Bliss!

  [Enter YASHA with a rug and travelling bag.]

  YASHA [walking delicately across the stage]: May I come through here?

  DUNYASHA: No one would recognize you, Yasha. You have changed abroad.

  YASHA: Hm ... And who are you?

  DUNYASHA: When you left here, I was that high ... [Shows the height from thefloor.] Dunyasha, Fyodor Kozoyedov’s daughter. Don’t you remember!

  YASHA: Hm ... My little pickle! [Looks round and embraces her; she shrieks and drops a saucer. YASHA quickly goes out.]

  VARYA [in the door, in a cross voice]: What is it?

  DUNYASHA [with tears in her eyes] : I’ve broken a saucer ...

  VARYA: That’s good luck.

  ANYA [coming out of her room]: We must warn Mama: Petya is here...

  VARYA: I told them not to wake him.

  ANYA [pensively] : Six years ago Father died, a month later my brother Grisha drowned in the river, a lovely boy of seven. Mama couldn’t take it, she went off, went off without a backward glance ... [Shudders.] I do understand her, if she only knew it!

  [A pause.]

  And Petya Trofimov was Grisha’s tutor, he might remind her ...

  [Enter FIRS in jacket and white waistcoat.]

  FIRS [going to the coffee-pot, in a worried tone]: The mistress will take her coffee here ... [Puts on white gloves.] Is the coffee ready? [To Dunyasha, sternly] You! What about the cream?

  DUNYASHA: Oh, my God! [Goes out quickly.]

  FIRS [fussing round the coffee-pot]: Oh you booby ... [M
utters to himself] They’ve come home from Paris ... And the master used to go to Paris ... by carriage and horses ... [Laughs.]

  VARYA: Firs, what is it?

  FIRS: Please? [Joyfully] My lady has come! I’ve waited a long time! Now I can die ... [Cries for joy.]

  [Enter LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA, GAYEV, LOPAKHIN and SIMEONOV-PISHCHIK; SIMEONOV-PISHCHIK is wearing a long, waisted coat of fine cloth and wide oriental-style trousers. GAYEVas he comes in moves his arms and trunk as if he is playing billiards.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: How does one play? Let me try and remember ... Yellow into the comer pocket! Double it into the middle!

  GAYEV: I’m aiming for the corner! Sister, we once slept in this very room, and now I’m fifty-one, strange as that may seem ...

  LOPAKHIN: Yes, time passes.

  GAYEV: What?

  LOPAKHIN: I said time passes.

  GAYEV: It smells of patchouli in here.

  ANYA: I’m going to sleep. Good night, Mama. [Kisses her mother.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: My darling child. [Kisses her hands.] Are you glad you’re home? I just can’t get over it.

  ANYA: Good night, Uncle.

  GAYEV [kissing her face and hands]: Bless you. How like your mother you are. [To his sister] You were just like that at her age, Lyuba.

  (ANYA gives her hand to Lopakhinand Pishchik, goes out and shuts the door behind her.]

  LYUBOV ANDREYEVNA: She’s quite worn out.