Message for Druid Theatre, on their production of Anton Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard"

Speeches by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins

"To have the opportunity of seeing Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, the final play of the great Russian writer will always be a guaranteed pleasure. To see this enduring classic in a version by Tom Murphy, directed by Garry Hynes with the Druid ensemble, is a special experience. Chekhov’s great work was written in conditions of great change where the life-world of those who enjoyed a privileged existence on estates and in great houses, on which, and within which, serfs owned in body and soul lived out their lives, was being challenged by a new modernity, the rise of Nouveau Riche. Emancipated serfs are familiar with the sentiment of such a class, but positioned for their replacement. Irish playwrights saw the parallels between these Chronicles of Chekhov and the incumbents of the big houses of the 19th Century landlord class in Ireland. Of these playwrights, the great wordsmith of dialogue and poetic feeling is Tom Murphy. The partnership between Druid’s Garry Hynes, the entire company, and Tom Murphy’s work has yielded a rich expression of contemporary Irish creativity for the stage. That now so many more will have access to what was given to us by Anton Chekhov, through his collaboration with Konstantin Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre in their time and Tom Murphy and the Druid Company in our time, reminds us that the stage is, above all else, a space for the soul. In that space the cloying pretentiousness of property possession, respectability and their serving institutions are confronted. Of this Irish gift to the world, among all the gifts, let us hope that they will not only endure but become seeds for the future. Bain taitneamh as an dráma seo, is uaimse, beir beannacht."