The Cherry Orchard review – the RSC’s starry cast brings a disappointing lack of sparkle

Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon Tamara Harvey’s production of Chekhov’s final play can seem woolly in meaning and the soft-edged tone mutes its force Laura Wade’s reworking of Anton Chekhov’s final, plaintive play brings a dazzle of big names. Helen Hunt is aristocratic matriarch Madame Ranyevskaya, Bill Pullman her brother, and Kenneth Branagh (so soon after his lead role in the Royal Shakespeare’s production of The Tempest) their nemesis, Lopakhin, a shopkeeper’s son here who takes over t...

By Arifa Akbar