Memories & Places

Chekhov uses memories in regards to places multiple times throughout The Cherry Orchard at many different points in the plot. Probably the most prominent point would be Ranyevskaya's attachment to the estate and orchard. She's extremely reluctant to give up the estate as it contains too many memories from her past that she considers too valuable to give up.

The exercise we carried out of describing our favourite place in the world, really helped me understand how valued memories are. The exercise helped me connect with Ranyevskaya's point of view and understand her mindset. It was really interesting to listen to other people's description of their favourite places and the range of places people chose to describe. It's really interesting to see the importance of places to people due to the memories associated with them and the way Chekhov used it within The Cherry Orchard managed to build a personal connection with me. As the exercise demonstrates, it's a situation that almost every single person can relate to.

After splitting up into different groups to create a piece in response to Chekhov's use of memory and place, my group decided to look at how memories are made in the sense of growing up around the same thing. We chose to look at the life of a girl who plants a tree when they are young, and how that tree stays with her as she grows old - the tree grew alongside the girl. This signified how the memories develop over time and how they turn into something so significant, they stay with you forever.The tree then split into three parts, mirroring the girl at three different points in her life, this again established how memories grow over time. This links with Ranyevskaya's character as her reasons behind not wanting to give up with estate is due to memories made whilst growing up. I think we successfully developed a creative and imaginative way to explore and develop the understanding behind Chekhov's choices within The Cherry Orchard and develop skills in order to respond to the text.

I really like the overall choices made by the entire class to respond to memories and place - i really liked how 3 out of the 4 groups decided to incorporate the aspect of a tree into their piece, it really managed to colour the link between the piece and The Cherry Orchard. The last group, who chose to not use a tree, chose to vocally portray how memories of a certain place can be warped and forgotten over time. I really liked the contrast this created against the other 3 groups and how it managed to tie up the piece, perfectly capturing what the whole piece was trying to portray.

The other class' pieces all managed to present different themes from the The Cherry Orchard in creative and extremely interesting ways. I really liked the way Mr Rennison's group used different levels and incorporated dance to present their theme of status within The Cherry Orchard, using dance within the piece was a unique way to express the limitations within different status'. How many people were restricted to only act one single way unable to express themselves in the way that they wanted to.

Overall, I managed to develop skills to respond to a text effectively and create an experimental piece whilst working with others' ideas. The whole development of the final piece helped me develop a deeper understanding of The Cherry Orchard and the themes within.