Anton Chekhov's THE SEAGULL
A comedy with some tragic bits
The short elevator pitch:
It's like LOVE ISLAND but without the boobs and bikinis!
A slightly longer synopsis:
The Seagull, a comedy-drama in four acts by Anton Chekhov, was first performed in 1896 and published in Russian the following year as Chayka. A revised edition was published in 1904. The play deals with lost opportunities and the clash between generations.
“If you ever need my life, come take it.” So wrote Trigorin, lover of the fading actress Arkadina, in his most famous book. Nina, a young ingénue and the beloved muse of Arkadina’s playwright son, Konstantin, absorbs this statement completely. When the two actresses — one young, and one aging — and the two writers — one successful, and one struggling — meet at the family estate one fateful summer, their loyalty, love, and ambition are put to the ultimate test. The first of Anton Chekhov’s realistic plays, The Seagull is a remarkable drama about passion, compromise, and the unknowable, untouchable concept of art.
The main characters, all artists, are guests at a country estate. They are Mme Arkadina, a middle-aged actress; her lover, Trigorin, a successful writer; her son Konstantin, a writer; and Nina, a young aspiring actress whom Konstantin loves. Mme Arkadina, jealous of Nina’s youth and promising career, acts cruelly and hatefully toward Konstantin, belittling his new play and withholding the approval he desperately seeks from her. Nina, impressed by Trigorin’s fame, ignores Konstantin, who kills a seagull and shows it to her, perhaps symbolically referring to his broken dreams. All four go their separate ways, but two years later they are reunited at the same estate. When Nina again rejects Konstantin, he destroys his writings and shoots himself while his mother, unaware, plays cards in another room.
MPtc's brand new version, designed and directed by Jonty Reason at Bellamy Hall, Albert Street, Mornington October 23-26
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