Performed: Fall 2018
Written by: Anton Chekhov
Director: Adrian Giurgea
Sorin welcomes for a holiday of a few days his sister Arkadina, a famous actress, who arrives with her lover, Trigorin, a renowned novelist. They gather by the shore of a lake to witness a drama written and directed by Konstantin Treplev, Arkadina’s son. In this drama, performs Nina, a young woman who lives not far from Sorin’s estate. Nina embodies “the soul of the world” because young Treplev wants to give life to an innovative theatrical form. Arkadina laughs at his effort, finds it ridiculous and incomprehensible, and Konstantin is hurt and angry. Meanwhile, the elementary teacher, Medvedenko, is in love with the daughter of the administrator of the estate, but she is hopelessly in love with Konstantin who is, on his turn with his actress, Nina.
Even today, you are excited to read about the hopes of young artists like Nina and Konstantin and the bitterness of established adults like Arkadina and Trigorin, soaked in love, rivalry, and jealousy. Yet when The Seagull, written by Chekhov in 1895, was first performed (in 1896) at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, it was a resounding failure: the production was called inconceivable, inconsistent, and devoid of theatrical virtue. Not understanding what they are doing, the actors’ efforts proved to be discomfiting and embarrassing. The audience whistled so much that Chekhov, humiliated, ran away from the theater in the middle of the second act, swearing that he would no longer write anything again.
Today, loved universally by the public and the theater people, The Seagull is considered a masterpiece, a tragic comedy about the human condition we all share. For the prominence of the landscape, for the soft lights, and the melancholic atmosphere, The Seagull is close to the Russian impressionism. For the choice of the thematic material, The Seagull is one of the great plays about writing. It superbly captures the struggle for new forms, the frustrations, and fulfilments of putting words on a page. Chekhov, in his first major play, staged a vital argument about the theatre which still resonates today.
