THE CHERRY ORCHARD ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2026

 

 

The Cherry Orchard. 

Written and adapted by Simon Stone from the play by Anton Chekhov.. Directed by Simon Stone. LG Arts Center. Festival Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Festival. February 27 – 2March 1  2026

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Doyeon Jeon as Doyoung Song and Haesoo Park as Doosik Hwang in
The Cherry Orchard

Adelaide’s International Arts Festival is renowned for presenting theatre that confronts, challenges or illuminates our view of the world. Directors of the legendary calibre of Peter Brook, Ivo van Hove and Thomas Ostermeier have inspired Adelaide Festival audiences with their re-imagined classics or contemporary works.  This year ex patriate Australian director Simon Stone brings his remarkable adaptation and production of Anton Chehkov’s The Cherry Orchard to the Adelaide Festiva.l What is remarkable about this work is that it is adapted for and performed by a South Korean company of actors in Korean and with English surtitles. What is especially remarkable also is that Stone’s production not only aligns faithfully with Chekohv’s plot about a family confronting the collapse of their past life but also their failure to accept change and progress. By placing Chekov’s turn of the twentieth century Russian play at a time of increasing social unrest and prior to the great Russian revolutions in a modern South Korea,, also confronting political unrest and change. Stone’s production draws our attention to the prophetic nature of Chekhov’s symbolic warning. Adapt to a changing world or suffer the consequences of clinging to a crumbling past.

Juwon Lee asJoodong Lee. Sejun Lee as Yebin Shin. Jihye Lee as
Haena Kang in The Cherry Orchard

A character map in the programme helps to understand the family hierarchy, crucial to an understanding of the relationships, and the motives behind the actions of the characters that propel the narrative. Matriarch of the family company Doyoung Song returns to her childhood home after a time with her daughter, Haena Kang, a film student in New York. Doyoung also has an adopted daughter Hyunsook Kang who is in a relationship with Doosik Hwang, the son of the family’s late driver. Dooyoung has a brother Jaeyoung Song and their cousin Youngho Kim. Other characters include the secretary Joodong Lee, his love interes,t the family housekeeper Doona Jung, her love interest the family chauffeur Yebin Shin and the tutor to Doyoung’s deceased son, Donglim Byun.

 

Sangkyu Son as Jaeyoung Song. Moon Choi  as Hyunsook Sang.
Doyeon Jeon  as Doyoung Song. Jihye Lee as Haena Kang in The  Cherry Orchard.

Stone and his actors construct a finely balanced pyramid of interwoven relationships in which the past conflicts with the values of a rapidly changing modern society.   Comedy and tragedy course through a family saga as the older generation clings blindly to the past. The family business is in debt. Protestors gather at the gates. Doosik’s solutions are rejected as creditors swarm, protests mount and the inevitable comes to a shattering conclusion.

Haesoo Park as Doosik Hwang. Moonchoi as Hyunsook Kang
in The Cherry Orchard

 Stone’s production is a tantalizing fuse sparking its way to a cataclysmic demolition of a symbolic past to make way for a progressive future. Doosik’s vision of a profitable hotel to replace the award-winning family home and diseased cherry orchard is Chekov’s prophetic warning to his time transposed with theatrical brilliance to Seoul and performed with a fiery energy by a company of actors familiar with the dichotomy of tradition and progress. LG Arts Center’s re-imagining of Chekov’s final play is as much about hope as it is about loss. It may take an audience some time to adjust to action on stage and surtitles on screen, but Stone’s direction and the performances of his cast shine with a clarity that allows us to see Chekov’s play in a new light and gain fresh insight into the rapidly changing circumstances of our world.