People who don’t really like Anton Chekhov’s plays complain that they are without plot, that nothing happens, that they are about only atmosphere. Of course this isn’t true, as director Jack Sbarbori clarifies in “The Cherry Orchard” at Quotidian Theatre, a production that underscores how wrong it is to consider Chekhov a quaint commentator on everyday reality in early 20th century Russia. “The Cherry Orchard” takes place in 1912 when Mme. Ranevskaya (Jane Squier Bruns), in Paris for five years, returns to her Russian ancestral estate with her daughter, Anya (Jenn Pommerenke). Her brother, Gaev (John Decker), has been living at the estate, as has her adopted daughter, Varya (Laura Russell). A group of family, employees and locals anxiously await Ranevskaya’s arrival.

Once they settle in, the merchant Lopakhin (Steve LaRocque) reminds Ranevskaya that the estate and its cherry orchard, which holds near-mythic memories for all those who knew it years earlier, must go to auction to pay the family’s debts.