The Cherry Orchard Cherry Orchard" was Chekhov's tribute to himself. Many of the characters in the play hearken back to his earlier works and are based on people he knew in his own life. It should also be noted that his boyhood house was bought and torn down by a wealthy man that his mother had considered a friend. The breaking guitar string in acts 2 and 4 hark back to his earliest works. Finally the classic "loaded gun" that appears in many of Chekhov's plays appears here, but this is his only play in which a gun is shown but not fired.
Uncle Vanya improved. "Uncle Vanya" became a permanent fixture in the Moscow Art Theatre. Other actors who have appeared in notable stage productions of "Uncle Vanya" include Franchot Tone, Cate Blanchett, Peter Dinklage, Jacki Weaver, Antony Sher, Ian McKellen, William Hurt, George C. Scott, Donald Sinden, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtney, Trevor Eve and Laurence Olivier. The play was also adapted as the new stage-play "Dear Uncle" by the British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, who reset it in the 1930s Lake District—this adaptation premiered from July to September 2011 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. <poem>Are you Uncle Vanya? I am. [Gunshot sounds]