[3] The play revolves around an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.

Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down.

Major theatre directors have staged it, including Charles Laughton, Peter Brook, Andrei Șerban, Jean-Louis Barrault, Tyrone Guthrie, Katie Mitchell, Robert Falls, and Giorgio Strehler.

It has influenced many other playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill, George Bernard Shaw, David Mamet, and Arthur Miller.

The play opens on a day in May in the nursery of Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya's home in the provinces of Russia, at the start of the 20th century.

Lopakhin has come to remind Ranevskaya and Gayev that their estate, including the cherry orchard, will be auctioned soon to pay off the family's debts.

He proposes to save the estate by allowing part of it to be developed into summer cottages; however, this would require the destruction of the cherry orchard, which is nationally known for its size.

Yepikhodov and Yasha vie for the affection of Dunyasha by singing and playing guitar while Charlotta soliloquizes about her life.

Yasha shoos Dunyasha away to avoid being caught, and Ranevskaya, Gayev, and Lopakhin appear, once more discussing the uncertain fate of the cherry orchard.

It is also the day of the auction; Gayev has received a paltry amount of money from his and Ranevskaya's aunt, and the family members, despite the general merriment around them, are anxious while they wait for news.

Varya worries about paying the musicians and scolds their neighbor Pishchik for drinking, Dunyasha for dancing, and Yepikhodov for playing billiards.

[6] Chekhov originally intended the play as a comedy (indeed, the title page of the work refers to it as such), and in letters noted that it is, in places, almost farcical.

[7] When he saw the original Moscow Art Theatre production directed by Konstantin Stanislavski, he was horrified to find that the director had moulded the play into a tragedy.

[citation needed] Ranevskaya's failure to address the problems facing her estate and family means that she eventually loses almost everything, and her fate can be seen as a criticism of those people who are unwilling to adapt to the new Russia.

The speeches by the student Trofimov, attacking intellectuals were later seen as early manifestations of Bolshevik ideas and his lines were often censored by the Tsarist officials.

[8] The play opened on 17 January 1904, the director's birthday, at the Moscow Art Theatre under the direction of the actor-director Konstantin Stanislavski.

Shortly after the play's debut, Chekhov departed for Germany due to his worsening health, and by July 1904, he was dead.

The modest and newly urbanized audiences attending pre-revolutionary performances at S. V. Panin's People's House in Saint Petersburg reportedly cheered as the cherry orchard was felled on stage.

[10] The Japanese manga Sakura no Sono (1985–86) and its live-action film adaptations are about a drama group in a girls-only private high school putting on a production of The Cherry Orchard.