Cherry Orchard - Sakuranosono (English)

A four-act play by Russian playwright Chekhov. Written in 1903, it premiered the following year at the Moscow Art Theatre. Madame Ranevskaya, a member of the declining aristocracy, falls in love with the man she lives with in Paris and returns to her ancestral estate, the Cherry Orchard. However, she is now burdened with huge debts and is forced to give up the orchard. Lopakhin, a former serf who is now a wealthy merchant, advises her to sell it as a villa, but neither she nor her brother understand the flow of the times and are willing to take any measures. Eventually, an auction is held and the Cherry Orchard is purchased by Lopakhin. Madame Ranevskaya sadly bids farewell to her estate and returns to Paris. However, her youngest daughter Anya is rather happy to break away from the old world symbolized by the Cherry Orchard, and takes the hand of Trofimov, a perpetual university student who can be seen as a revolutionary, and jumps into a new world. In Japan, the play premiered at the Imperial Theater by the Modern Drama Association in July 1915 (Taisho 4).

[Takuya Hara]

"The Cherry Orchard" (translated by Yoshiko Yuasa, Iwanami Bunko / translated by Shiraba Nakamura, Shincho Bunko / translated by Masao Yonekawa, Kadokawa Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ロシアの劇作家チェーホフの四幕戯曲。1903年に書かれ、翌年モスクワ芸術座初演。斜陽貴族のラネーフスカヤ夫人は、パリで同棲(どうせい)していた男に愛想をつかし、先祖代々の領地である桜の園に戻ってくる。しかしいまや夫人は莫大(ばくだい)な借金を抱え、桜の園を手放さざるをえない。かつて農奴でいまや裕福な商人になったロパーヒンは、別荘地として売り出すように勧めるが、夫人も兄も時代の流れを理解できないため、なんの対策も考えようとしない。やがて競売が行われ、桜の園はロパーヒンが買い取る。夫人は悲しく領地に別れを告げ、ふたたびパリに戻って行く。だが夫人の末娘アーニャは、桜の園によって象徴される旧世界との決別をむしろ喜び、革命家ともとれる万年大学生トロフィーモフと手を取り合って、新しい世界へと飛び出して行く。日本では1915年（大正4）7月、近代劇協会が帝劇で初演している。

［原　卓也］

『『桜の園』（湯浅芳子訳・岩波文庫／中村白葉訳・新潮文庫／米川正夫訳・角川文庫）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例