The Music of The Cherry Orchard: Repetitions in the Russian Text

The Music of The Cherry Orchard: Repetitions in the Russian Text GRETA ANDERSON Kay Unruh Des Roches has recently demonstrated how an analysis ofthe verbal repetitions in the original text of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea contributes to a specific understanding of the play which a close study of its English . translations would not be able to yield. Her essay suggests that all plays in translation "need a criticism based on a detailed description of untranslatable elements in the original text," a criticism ·which would be as relevant to the theater as to the classroom.' Chekhov's major plays certainly merit such an approach, not only because they are so popular in both settings, but because, even in translation, their verbal repetitions (and acoustic repetitions) are such a significant part of our experience of them. Here, a reading of the Russian text ofThe Cherry Orchard will reveal the original shape and sound of its repetitions and probe the meanings inhering in their arrangement. As in Ibsen's play, the repetitions in Chekhov create local patterns which telescope into the play's larger thematic structure. By understanding the play in terms of musical structures, we can appreciate in greater detail the measured grace and good humor with which the playwright has his characters conduct themselves together, in the face of an uncertain future. Attention to structural rhythms tends toward a reading of the play more in accord with Chekhov's designation of the playas a comedy' than do most interpretations, particularly those which focus on its closing moments. Of the final snapped string, one critic has written, "to interpret that sound is to interpret the play"' : this essay will explicate the rhythmic framework in which that note sounds. Throughout this play in which "nothing happens," Chekhov creates a dramatic "action" based on community and place - ultimately, the severance ofthe two. Thus, the characters appear on stagejustas they would appear on the family estate, engaged in casual conversation or hysteric outburst, as the case may be. What makes such a loose "ensemble" structure cohere is, at least in part, the interplay of different types of verbal and acoustic repetition, with (1991) 34 MODERN DRAMA 340 Music of The Cherry Orchard 341 intennittant repetitions establishing a base rhythm upon which are layered the lyrical swells and lulls of local repetition. Through the effects of these two techniques on the audience's experience oftime and emotion, Chekhov creates the boundaries of scenes and acts, and structures the play's close. The most common fonn of intennittant repetition occurs in character-specific .'motifs," from Gayev's " cue ball into the corner" to Yepikbodov's sad song on the guitar. Such repetitions function to counter the strange with the familiar, the tragic with the perpetually comic, and, recurring from beginning to end as they do, mark the play's progress thtough time, evoking the pulse ofpanicular lives through fateful vicissitudes. Local repetitions, as when a word is sounded twice - ..doubling" - or when characters repeat their own words or others' within the space of a speech or exchange, often serve to amplify the tenor of the moment, but may also " round off" scenes within acts and close the acts themselves, returning heightened emotions to a baseline level, bringing silence to the stage. The first line we hear Pishchik utter is the phtase "Think of that now! "4 in response to Charlotta's out-of-the-blue assertion: "My dog even eats nuts." He repeats this phtase twelve times in the play. This repetition establishes him as a gaping, vacuous character, but his character type is less important here than Chekhov's use of his "Think of that now! "s. The second delivery occurs later in Act One, following an equally bizarre exchange: PISHCHIK How was it in Paris? What's it like there? Did you eat frogs? LYUBOV I ate crocodiles. PISHCHIK Think of that now! (p.327) Moments later, Pishchik interrupts Gayev's verbal tribute to an antique bookcase with the exclamation: "A hundred years! ... Think of that now! " Pishchik's repetitive exclamations fonn a pattern of response to the more eccentric, potentially discordant elements in the play. The absolute predictability ofhis reaction domesticates...