2012 Company Profiles

christopher richards

founder and board member

Was one of the founders of SATTF and has been a member of the board since SATTF became a charity in 2004.

The Cherry Orchard

By Anton Chekhov - Translated by Stephen Mulrine

Directed by Andrew Hilton

Julia Hills as Ranevskaya

Public Booking Now Open! Click HERE to book online or call 0117 902 0344 to book tickets.

Following the widely admired productions of Three Sisters in 2005 and Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic) in 2009, SATTF presents Chekhov’s final tragi-comic masterpiece.

The charming but feckless Madame Ranevskaya returns home to Russia after five years in Paris with her lover to face looming bankruptcy. Can she conceive of her magnificent cherry orchard being sold to save her whole estate, or will she ignore all advice and court disaster for herself and her whole family?

With undiminished comic touch and a robustly unsentimental eye Chekhov drew this classic portrait of an aristocratic family bewildered and impotent in the face of the huge social changes sweeping Russia a century ago.

The cast includes Julia Hills (who joined the company last year as the Duchesses in Richard II) as the feckless matriarch, Ranevskaya; and Simon Armstrong (who starred as Uncle Vanya and as Alceste in the SATTF/Bristol Old Vic Misanthrope) as the brash entrepreneur, Lopakhin.

“A marvellously controlled production, and one that reinstates the real comedy in Chekhov” The Western Mail, on the company’s THREE SISTERS

“A marvellous blend of heartache and hilarity…This truly is the most wonderful production” The Times on Uncle Vanya

On the Evils of Tobacco by Anton Chekhov, translated by Stephen Mulrine

A Chekhov bonus! Linger in the theatre bar after The Cherry Orchard on a Wednesday or a Friday evening for a late-night, bonus performance of On The Evils of Tobacco. In this celebrated monologue, the hen-pecked Nyukhin tries to obey his wife's command to offer an improving lecture, but succeeds only in revealing the comic absurdities of his life. Paul Brendan performs a new translation by Stephen Mulrine.

Cast

Julia Hills Lyubov Ranevskaya
Eleanor Yates Anya
Dorothea Myer-Bennett Varya
Christopher Bianchi Leonid Gaev
Simon Armstrong Yermolai Lopakhin
Piers Wehner Yasha
Paul Currier Tramp
Benjamin O’Mahony Trofimov
Roland Oliver Simeonov-Pishchik
Saskia Portway Charlotta Ivanovna
Paul Brendan Yepikhodov
Gemma Lawrence Dunyasha
Paul Nicholson Firs

Dorothea Myer-Bennett Regan

Eleanor Yates Cordelia

Christopher Bianchi Albany

Byron Mondahl Cornwall

Simon Armstrong Kent

Trevor Cooper Gloucester

Christopher Staines Edgar

Jack Whitam Edmund

Dudley Sutton Lear's Fool

Paul Brendan Oswald

The cast includes Benjamin O'Mahony, Piers Wehner, Danann McAleer, Paul Currier and John Sandeman.

Production

Director Andrew Hilton

Associate Director Dominic Power

Designer Harriet de Winton

Composer Elizabeth Purnell

Lighting Designer Matthew Graham

Production

Director Andrew Hilton
Associate Director Dominic Power
Designer Harriet de Winton
Composer Elizabeth Purnell
Lighting Designer Matthew Graham