The stifling languorousness that so often afflicts contemporary productions of Chekhov is thankfully nowhere in sight in this Classic Stage Company’s revival of The Cherry Orchard. Directed by Andrei Belgrader and featuring a stellar cast including Dianne Wiest, John Turturro, Daniel Davis, Juliet Rylance, Roberta Maxwell, Josh Hamilton, Michael Urie and the great Alvin Epstein, this literally lighter version is very easy to take.

For starters, the new translation by John Christopher Jones (a veteran actor with no shortage of Chekhov experience himself) manages to trim the play to a fast-paced two-and-a-quarter hours including intermission without leaving it feeling overly truncated. The language is easy on modern ears, but not anachronistic. 

The lightness of tone is immediately established by Santo Loquasto’s all-white set, featuring a tiny miniature of a train, which is revealed by the parting of a gauzy curtain.

Unevenness of tone and acting styles is almost always a problem with Chekhov productions, but this rendition is more graceful than most. Director Belgrader has elicited terrific performances from his ensemble, beginning with Wiest, who previously excelled in the same venue in a production of The Seagull. The actress brings a tremulous vulnerability to Ranavskaya, the financially bereft owner of a large estate that her scheming neighbor Lopakhin (Turturro, providing his usual compelling intensity) proposes be divided into small lots.

Daniel Davis is equally moving as Gaev, her equally self-deluded, pie-in-the-sky, older brother, while Juliet Rylance is luminous as Varya, the daughter with whom Lopakhin is hopelessly in love.

The smaller roles are expertly handled as well. Josh Hamilton is touching self-effacing as the young radical Trofimov; Siblings Katherine and Elizabeth Waterston are both beautiful and engaging as the miserable daughter Anya and randy servant Dunyasha respectively; Michael Urie is amusing as the fumbling servant Trofimov; and Roberta Maxwell is hilarious as the governess Charlotta, even if her interactions with various audience members are a little over-the-top.

And of course there’s Epstein, as the forlorn, aged servant Fiers, who is so poignantly abandoned at the play’s conclusion. Shuffling onto the stage wearing his nightshirt, he single-handedly embodies the playwright’s weaving together of pathos and humor that this production so effectively realizes.

Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St. 212-352-3101. www.classicstage.org.