El Nogalar

Reading El Nogalar is initially a rather interesting experience.  Having studied The Cherry Orchard freshman year, I thought the parallels the play drew to Chekhov's work were pretty neat, and I applauded Tanya Saracho for being able to take the cherry orchard to the Mexican border and into today's society.  However, after re-reading The Cherry Orchard this year, I found Saracho's changes a bit problematic when being compared to the original, as really Saracho has less adapted Chekhov's story and more told her own original one, drawing on only the Cherry Orchard's skeleton and fleshing out the rest on her own.

What I found most interesting is that Saracho reduced the cast to four main women and Lopahkin's character - renamed Lopez - because she felt the story rested on the female characters.  At first, I wondered why she thought this, as the women of the story really don't work to save the estate any more than the men do.  However, seeing her approach to her play, I do agree that the original was at least more focused on the women and their lives, rather than featuring them working to save the estate.