Chay Yew's The Morning People is a bold adaptation of Anton Chekhov's finest masterpiece The Cherry Orchard.
The year is 1934, a time of great social, political, civil and economic change in China's history. The marching footsteps of the communist army is approaching in the distance as China moves towards a revolutionary period.
The cherry orchard is located this time in the mountainous province of Shaanxi, in northern China.
The plot hinges on the tragic loss of a family estate [the cherry orchard] that its genteel owners dearly loved, to a businessman who used to be a peasant.
The play opens with the return of Madam Siet, a famous Chinese singer and the owner of the cherry orchard. She returns from London after a self-imposed exile following the death of her husband and only son. Madam Siet arrives home to find the much-loved cherry orchard that has been in the family for generation, is to be auctioned off, to repay the accumulating debts brought on by the family's frivolous spending.
Against this backdrop of revolutionary change, the various generations of Madam Siet's family are caught in their lives, loves, struggles and feeble attempts to save the cherry orchard.
