With its production of “The Orchard,” juxtaposing the human and the virtual, the Arlekin Players continue taking creative leaps.

The director Igor Golyak of the Arlekin Players Theater with the 12-foot robotic arm that sits at the center of his new adaptation of “The Cherry Orchard.”Credit…

When the director Igor Golyak began working on a staging of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” he had an idea in mind. “There was a concept,” he said, then interrupted himself. “I’d rather not talk about what it used to be, if that’s OK. The war started, me being from Kyiv and having this affinity for the Russian culture. …” Golyak’s voice trailed off. He was speaking in a coffee shop a block from the Baryshnikov Arts Center, in Midtown Manhattan, where his show, now titled “The Orchard,” is set to begin previews June 7 with a cast headed by the busy stage and screen actress Jessica Hecht as the estate owner Lyubov Ranevskaya. Also onboard is the center’s namesake, Mikhail Baryshnikov, as the old servant Firs. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

A version of this article appears in print on June 5, 2022