The Cherry Orchard the three or four outstanding plays by Chekhov, along with "The Seagull", "Three Sisters", and "Uncle Vanya". The play concerns 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. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Nielsen and Liesel Allen Yaeger. In September/October 2013, a separate production ran in the Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, produced by Bryan Fonseca. In 2014, the show ran at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The show was produced in Seattle at the ACT Theatre from October 17 – November 16, 2014. Playwright Durang starred as Vanya alongside Marilu Henner as Masha in a production at the Bucks County Playhouse from July 17 to August 10, 2014. Although "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is a comedy, it has some darker elements that pervade its themes.