Interview: Adeel Akhtar Buys The Cherry Orchard at St. Ann's Warehouse

Adeel Akhtar has built a career defined by versatility, seamlessly moving between gripping drama and sharp comedy on stage and screen. Known for his BAFTA-winning turn in Murdered by My Father and his roles in Four Lions, Utopia, Ali & Ava, and Sherwood, Akhtar has consistently brought depth and humanity to his characters.

While audiences may recognize him from television and film, theater has always been a significant part of his journey. Beginning March 26, he plays Lopakhin in Benedict Andrews‘s production of The Cherry Orchard, reprising a role he played at the Donmar Warehouse in London this time last year. Upon bringing it to St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, a venue that holds a special place in his artistic memory, he reflects on revisiting the play with leading lady Nina Hoss, his New York City past, and the thrill of returning to theater after years away.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What is it like to return to The Cherry Orchard after a year away?
It’s all good, actually. It’s my first time doing a play which we’ve already done once. It’s less tiring than going through a full rehearsal period where you’re discovering the story and having to work out what your character is and everything. In a way, it’s just sort of re-familiarizing, you know?

You’ve lived here in New York in the past, right?
Yeah. I went to the Actors Studio. It was affiliated with the New School back in the day, and then after I left, it moved to some different places, and everything is different now. I used to live on Bergen Street in Brooklyn, and then I moved further out to Cortelyou Road. I find that…if you’re living in New York, you can see the changes and it’s fine. But I find it quite sad going back to the old haunts that aren’t there anymore. People who live there just get over it. It’s happened before and it’s going to happen again. When you’re from there, you cling onto that stuff less, maybe, because you see changes happening all the time. But I was just like “No!”

Are you excited to be back?
I am. The last time I was at St. Ann’s…God. I hope this is true — do you remember Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis?

The one in Polish?
The one before that. The Royal Court production. I saw it, maybe, in my fourth year of drama school, or after I finished. That was the last time I was at St. Ann’s. That was round about the History Boys era, when I was basically just bobbing around New York in a grace period where you can see whether you can get enough work to stay in the country.

I remember having read Sarah Kane, and that being a motivating factor for getting into theater. It was very unapologetic, quite violent, and aggressive, and I was lit up by it. I didn’t want to do a drama school in the UK, so I found the Actors Studio, which seemed more like the type of thing I wanted to be doing. And then I worked for years, and it was a distant dream about playing at St. Ann’s. This is quite a nice full circle.

I’m curious how The Cherry Orchard will look in their space, knowing how compact and in your face the Donmar is.
It’s not the kind of Sarah Kane in your face. This is a lot more nuanced. Benedict Andrews is a genius when it comes to adaptations. He manages to approach it with a light touch. Even as an actor, to be in one of his productions felt very immediate and approachable. But it’s scary doing any play, and I hadn’t done theater in a long time.

Tell me about that.
I was terrified being back on stage because it had been so long. Theater is quite revealing. Not to get too hippy dippy about it, but you sort of wonder why this part happened at this time in your life. There are definitely some beautiful parallels between Lopakhin and me getting back to the theater.

How so?
He’s entering a space where he’s questioning his own value within that space. It was running parallel to me getting back into theater a little bit. It’s a confronting thing. Halfway through a rehearsal process, you wonder whether you can do it. So, it was just a great part to play.

Benedict’s adaptation and contemporizing some of the language made it so approachable. You’ve got a Bonnie “Prince” Billy song going on, a Nick Cave song going on. You’re being drawn into the beauty of Chekhov’s writing, and suddenly, there are piercing moments that bring you into the present tense. I was lucky to be part of that journey.

Did it satisfy you in a different way than TV and film?
It really did. I look at Nina Hoss in Cherry Orchard and she’s a theater beast. She lives it. She carried us. She’s the captain of the whole production. It was a kind, inviting space. Everybody was able to be open and not take themselves too seriously.

I look at how she conducts herself. There’s something about somebody who’s dedicated a lot of their life to theater. There’s an efficiency of energy. They know what to stress out about or what not to stress out about. If I can have a little bit of that, that’d be great.