ABSTRACT
. . .There were signs of revolt in the usually docile audience attending the performance of the Stage Society at the Aldwych Theatre. For once a certain amount of impatience was shown, as though the dramatic fare provided was a little too difficult to swallow. Perhaps this attitude is not altogether surprising, for to be plunged, without any preparation whatsoever into an atmosphere, a social life, a set of characters, so different from those which we habitually meet, was, and must be, a shock to a well-regulated and conventional English mind. The truth is that there ought to have been some sort of introductory note to Anton Chekhov's ‘Cherry Orchard’ pointing out the character of the drama, and the precise objects which it was intended to serve. Neither an English audience nor a French audience is very quick in assimilating new ideas, especially when presented in a thoroughly unfamiliar form. Only, perhaps in Berlin or St. Petersburg does one find that sort of quick receptivity which is needed for the comprehension of a standpoint at first sight bizarre and absurd. When we have to add to this the fact that this particular play of Chekhov, like most of his others, is quite formless, and wanting in dramatic movement, it is hardly surprising that it did not receive anything but a very chilly welcome from the members of the Stage Society.
