Published on: 2026-08-29
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
“Uncle Vanya,” “Three Sisters,” and “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov are a famous dramatic triptych, acclaimed masterpieces that have conquered theater stages around the world. The mos.ru article details in which theaters under the Moscow Department of Culture’s jurisdiction you can see productions based on these works.
From the “Leshey” to “Crimean nonsense”
“Uncle Vanya,” one of the landmark works in the entire legacy of Anton Chekhov, was preceded by another play called “The Wood Demon.” The writer created it in 1889 for the benefit performance of his friend, actor Pavel Svobodin of the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The action begins with the arrival at the estate of Yegor (Georges) Voynitsky of retired professor Alexander Serebryakov, a widower who lost his wife, Voynitsky’s sister. Serebryakov proposes to sell the estate along with the forest, which alienates not only Voynitsky but also the landowner Mikhail Khrushchov, nicknamed the Wood Demon, who loves this forest more than anything in the world.
The Imperial Theatres Directorate forbids the performance of “The Leshy,” seeing unpleasant hints at real people. Six years later, Chekhov decides to rewrite the play, somewhat shifting the accents and changing the characters. Uncle George becomes Ivan Voynitsky, the Leshy becomes the doctor Mikhail Astrov. The playwright also rewrites the tragic ending with George’s suicide.
The new play, “Uncle Vanya,” was published in 1897, and in 1899 it was staged at the Moscow Art Theatre named after A.P. Chekhov (MAT). That same year, after the success, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko asked Anton Pavlovich to write a play specifically for MAT. Konstantin Stanislavski also joined the request. Under this pressure, while in Yalta, the author was working full speed on “Three Sisters.”
The play evoked a melancholy mood in Chekhov. He felt that he was writing “boring Crimean nonsense.” The plot about the sisters, desperately wanting to leave for Moscow, no longer resonated in his soul with the same enthusiasm as before. He spoke about his new work like this:
“I’m not writing a play, but some sort of confusion. There are many characters — I might get confused and stop writing.”
But the Moscow Art Theatre needed a play, and Nemirovich-Danchenko and Stanislavsky insisted on its completion. Chekhov rewrote and edited it until the end of 1900, having already left for Nice. The long-awaited premiere took place in January 1901.
The author’s last play was “The Cherry Orchard,” the plot of which revolves around the sale of the ancestral estate of the ruined landowner Lyubov Ranevskaya to pay off debts. Anton Pavlovich himself considered the play a comedy and did not understand why newspapers so persistently called it a drama. The premiere took place in 1904 at the Moscow Art Theatre. A few months later, the author passed away.
Mossovet Theater
At the Mossovet Theater, they are staging Chekhov’s trilogy created by Andrei Konchalovsky, which includes three plays produced from 2009 to 2016: “Uncle Vanya,” “Three Sisters,” and “The Cherry Orchard.”
Andrei Konchalovsky first turned to Chekhov’s work in 1970 when he directed the film “Uncle Vanya.” It starred Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Vladimir Zeldin, Sergey Bondarchuk, Irina Kupchenko, and others. In 2009, he revisited this story by staging a play of the same name. Mossovet Theatre. He designed the scenography himself: instead of a traditional house, there was a small square platform slightly raised above the floor; instead of a fully furnished room, there were a few of the most important items. On stage appeared Vladimir Maizinger, Natalia Vdovina, Yulia Vysotskaya, Pavel Derevyanko, and others. This cast largely remained the same in the subsequent plays of the triptych.
In 2012, the homage to Chekhov continued with a play “Three Sisters”, and in 2016 — “The Cherry Orchard”, which was intentionally made a comedy — the director reminded that the author conceived the play precisely in a humorous vein:
“He wrote it while seriously ill, and wryly joked that, according to his doctors’ calculations, he had stayed in this world for at least three more years. Knowing the approaching denouement, he decided to say goodbye to life cheerfully; that is exactly why he wrote ‘The Cherry Orchard’ as a comedy.”
Yulia Vysotskaya transformed into Ranevskaya, Natalia Vdovina into Varya, and Vitaliy Kishchenko into Lopakhin.
“Sovremennik”
The history of “Three Sisters” at the Sovremennik Theatre began in 1982, when the eponymous play was created by Galina Volchek. The production was loved not only in Moscow: in 1990 it was shown in Seattle as part of the cultural program of the Goodwill Games, and a little later — on Broadway. American audiences greeted the play with enthusiasm. The cast was truly star-studded: the roles were performed by Marina Neelova, Valentin Gaft, Igor Kvasha.
Galina Volchek dared to partially change the staging of the 2001 production (currently the third version is running), to shift the emphasis in the interpretation of the play, and, in essence, to offer the audience a largely different performance. production Elena Plaksina, Alena Babenko, Viktoriya Romanenko, Ilya Lykov, Ivan Stebunov, Sergey Yushkevich, and Andrey Chernyshov are involved.
Taganka Theater
At the Taganka Theatre, they are showing their version “Three Sisters” — with the subtitle “Down with gloom.” The main focus is on the celebration at the Prozorov family house — the name day of the younger sister, Irina.
This tragedy unfolds where loud music plays and glasses clink. Director Sasha Zolotovitsky seasoned the production with various metaphors, echoes of ritual ceremonies, and references to other works.
“Moderna”
A performance “The Cherry Orchard” celebrate the 10th anniversary of the renovated Modern Theatre. Director and artistic director Yuri Grymov presented his own perspective on the play.
“‘The Cherry Orchard’ is an absolute boiling point. An icon of Russian dramaturgy, a great world play. Rarely does a director not touch this work. And in this boiling water, one can easily either get boiled or be reborn rejuvenated,” he said.
Remembering that “The Cherry Orchard” was intended as a comedy, the director took the characters’ humor to something opposite, turning the story into a disturbing phantasmagoria. The visual design of the performance only emphasizes this: dark tones, bare apple trees, evoking the decay of the entire estate.
Lenkom of Mark Zakharov
You can see it at Lenkom “The Cherry Orchard” in the production by Mark Zakharov, who rewrote Chekhov in his own way, exposing not nobility in his characters, but vanity and frivolity. And this is not mockery of the classic, but following the playwright himself, who called the play a comedy.
Theatrical Center “Cherry Orchard”
In the autumn of 2025, a premiere of the restored version of the play was held in memory of the People’s Artist of Russia Olga Shirokova “The Cherry Orchard”.
Director Alexander Vilkin did not modernize the story or add any details, but completely preserved both the text and the atmosphere of Chekhov’s play. On stage are Valentina Emelyanova, Ksenia Romenkova, Alexander Volochienko, Vadim Raikin, and others.
Theater “Near Stanislavsky’s House”
In the play “To forget or to stop living” Characters from several works by Anton Chekhov appear at once: “Uncle Vanya,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “Three Sisters,” “The Seagull,” and the story “The Date Did Happen, But…” Director Yuri Pogrebnichko created a production resembling a quest or a guide through the classic author’s oeuvre.
Learn about plays, concerts, exhibitions, and other interesting events on the official Mosbilet channels in messengers “Max”and “Telegram”.
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