Update Proves Relevant in Well Picked ‘Cherry Orchard’

Anton Chekhov’s character-based dramas were drawn with such seductive delicacy and individual specificity that his broader insights into turn-of-the-century czarist Russia’s disintegrating social fabric are easily overlooked. Yet class struggle, economic upheaval and the mercenary erosion of human values churn beneath the deceptively placid surface of Chekhov’s emotionally paralyzed agrarian gentry.

To amplify the enduring relevance of these forces in the Artists’ Collective revival of “The Cherry Orchard” in Culver City, director Theresa Larkin employs an ingenious fourth-act time shift from the traditional 1904 Russian countryside to a near-future Napa Valley pillaged by condo development.

The transposition proves wittily congruent with Chekhov’s tale of a bankrupt rural estate being parceled into dachas through the obsession of a boorish peasant-turned-millionaire (a hilarious Kevin Skousen). In George Gutsche’s new translation, cellular phones may replace letters as the bearers of distressing news, but their impact is all the more immediate for a family losing its footing in a too-rapidly changing world.

The updating occurs only after the large ensemble’s skills with a traditional staging are meticulously established. Chekhov’s warmth, compassion, humor and tragic reflections on the consistently misdirected passions of his contemporaries are illuminated in fine performances--in particular from Sally Savalas as the impoverished matriarch unable to change her free-spending ways, Adriane Alvarez and Nicole Landers as her daughters and Justin Eick as her sharp-tongued brother.

While the later time shift connects Chekhov’s play to a host of contemporary issues--including immigration and the environment--the enhanced relevance comes with some sacrifice of emotional continuity. For all his social insights, Chekhov was not a cerebral writer. Besides the leap in time and place, having to grapple with some of the roles being assumed by different performers jars the trajectory of feeling that carries our sympathies through the concluding scenes. Nevertheless, it’s a thoughtful and provocative trade-off that’s justified by heightened resonance.

* “The Cherry Orchard,” Gascon Center Theatre, 8737 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 15. $12. (888) 566-8499. Running time: 3 hours, 5 minutes.