\u3cem\u3eCatalunya Invisible\u3c/em\u3e: Contemporary Drama in Barcelona

During the winter of 2000, Lluís Pasqual staged a Catalan version of Anton Chekov\u27s The Cherry Orchard at Barcelona\u27s Teatre Lliure, the historic home of Catalonia\u27s most stable, accomplished, and distinguished repertory theatre company. In Chekov\u27s play, Madame Lyobov Andreyevna Ranyevskaya, an emblem of the fading elegance and dwindling supremacy of the Russian aristocracy, is compelled by her situation of financial despair to sell her estate and cherry orchard to the nouveau-riche Lopakhin and then return to Paris on the eve of the Revolution. The orchard that was once admired for its beauty eventually will be destroyed in order to pave the way for a series of homes that will be occupied by the rising working-class