Wednesday 15 June 2016

The Cherry Orchard by STAN at the National Theatre Dona Maria II, Lisboa - The 4th of June 2016


I must confess I had never heard of the Belgian Theatrical group STAN until I decided to see their Cherry Orchard  theatrical adaptation under the world performing ALKANTARA Festival in Lisboa.


They have been around for almost thirty years, I have been told, and are said to have a critical and non-dogmatic approach to theatre and society by reinventing classic repertoired theatrical pieces by changing them into contemporary ones.


I didn't particularly feel connected to their approach to Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, possibly because I have seen quite a few adaptations of the play in the past and had set too high expectations as to this particular performance, which despite being well performed by most actors on stage lacked  (in my humble opinion) the linguist strength an English speaking play would require on the part of non-English speaking actors. There were times in which I felt the lines were overplayed and thus sounded forcefully "theatrical".


What I must nevertheless highlight is the staging which I felt was rather unique and particularly well accomplished. My appraisal goes therefore to Damiaan De Schrijver.

























Text - Anton Tchekhov
Acting - Evelien Bosmans, Evgenia Brendes, Robby Cleiren, Jolente De Keersmaeker, Lukas De Wolf, Bert Haelvoet, Minke Kruyver, Scarlet Tummers, Rosa Van Leewen, Styjn Van Opstal and Frank Vercruyssen.
Mis-en-Scène - Damiaan De Schrijver.
Technical Team - Tom Van Aken, Chris Vanneste and Tim Wouters
Production - tg STAN










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