It's a tale of landed gentry, who after years of squandering money are forced to sell their family home to cover debts. Local self-made millionaire Lopakhin believes there's a way to avoid this by developing the eponymous cherry orchard and building holiday homes there, but the family aren't interested; they moan about losing their home and precious orchard but won't do anything to save either. I thought John Elkington was brilliant as Lopakhin (but I'm a bit biased since my youngest was in a production of Kes with him), though if Chekhov's not your thing then you can see him in pantomime soon.
It's probably not the done thing to pick fault with a playwrite of Chekhov's standing, but I'm beginning to wonder if he quite knew how to end a play. When I saw The Seagull a while ago, I thought 'well, I'd have ended things a little earlier'. Same here. There's a moment when everyone has left the stage, and a key is heard 'off' turning in a lock. That's where I'd drop the curtain. Instead there's a 'tidying up' piece from old family servant Firs. Presumably Chekhov knew what he was doing though.
