YORK theatre director Helen Wilson attributes Jeremy Corbynesque qualities to one of Chekhov’s famous characters in The Cherry Orchard, as she prepares to open her York Settlement Community production tonight with Dan Hardy in the role of the idealistic revolutionary Trofimov.

Couple this resemblance with the Russian play dealing with extreme changes of circumstance, and it could mean that The Cherry Orchard, first performed in 1904, has relevance anew in the present day.

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Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn

"The timing couldn't be more auspicious," says Helen. “I’ve written to our local Labour MP, Rachael Maskell, and invited her to our first night. The parallels between the story that unfolds on stage and the real-life events, which played out on television on September 12, are uncanny. Like Shakespeare, Chekhov’s plays are timeless in that they deal with the human condition, and the recent political events demonstrate this.”

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Dan Hardy as Trofimov in The Cherry Orchard

Helen describes Chekhov's play as an emotional rollercoaster, one that pushes its audience out of a comfort zone. "I think people are afraid of emotion; it makes then uncomfortable," she says. "So it's a challenge when directing it to orchestrate great moments of emotion and yet transitions into comedy. That's tricky to do and that's why lots of people don't do it, but I find the play very close to the skin because Chekhov gets to the nub of things in a way that other playwrights don't.

"He also didn't write 'baddies'; he wrote fully rounded human beings, warts and all. 'This is how someone is,' he's saying. 'Look at them for what they are'."

York Settlement Community Players present The Cherry Orchard from tonight until Sunday at the Friargate Theatre, York. Evening performances on the first three days run from 7.30pm to 10pm; matinees on the last two from 2.30pm to 5pm. Tickets cost £10 on 01904 613000 or online at ridinglights.org