Finding Voices in Act 2

**note, video is only a recording, there are no images***

So I began reading Act two silently, in my head, when for some bizarre reason I thought it would be better if I read the play out loud to myself. I mean, it is a play isn't it? Your suppose to watch it. But the way I was reading it was very monotone and boring, all the characters sounded exactly the same. If a the play is a mimesis, then they all sound different and have different personalities, right? So I started from the beginning, a third time, and read each character differently. Then I got curious, what do I sound like doing these characters? Couldn't I give myself a performance? So then I recorded it. Listening back to it I could find what characters I felt I understood more and what characters I was still trying to understand. Most of the female characters I felt was easy (for obvious reasons) but doing male characters, and of different ages and personalities, was hard. I was almost embaressed to do the male characters, at one point I had to do a section again because I thought Petyr was an old man! Probably the hardest part of reading all the characters is that I can't get a good fix on personality, or stick to one role. Also, It's my first time reading this play, so trying to find the emotions the character was feeling was difficult. Alot of guessing, but after reading the act several times, and listening to myself as I edited the video, I feel that I understand the scenes alot more.

[will have an edit to discuss what I think of each character]

"Not where... when" [an unrevised blog]

"Not where... when" is an over used line in movies about time travel, but in the play, "The Cherry Orchard", events from the past, present and future always seems to be the topic of the characters conversations.

In act one we already have several jumps back into the past. One of the first rooms just so happens to be a nursery, childhood. We have two characters who recall thier childhood, Ranevsky and Lopakhin. The nursery belonged to Ranevsky and Gayev when they were children, yet it brough back Lopakhins childhood memories aswell. Lopakhim uses his past to look at his future. He compares his past "peasant" status to a now "rich" man. The story about Ranevsky's kindess is used not only to show what influenced him whie growing up, but also how he feels about status. This may be one reason why he tells Dunyasha to remember her place.

Meanwhile Ranevsky wants to leave her present and go back to her past. She is happy when she sees the nursery and appears to want to be a child again , "Oh! My childhood, my innocence! It was in this nursery...". She holds on to her past, as if it were running away, meanwhile Lopakhin has just been using it to state why he's the man he is today.

The Cherry orchard is very much in this situation. Lopakhin sees a great future for it, by building cottages on the land. That way they are able to keep thier land, and also make a profit. Ranevsky wants the Cherry Orchard to remain the same as she always has known it, showing she still has her head in the past. But the present situation is that the Cherry Orchard is going to be auctioned off.

These are only examples taken out of the first act, but I am sure the importance of the past present and future are sure to come up throughout the rest of the play.

This blog does not want a picture.

To be continued. [edited]