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The Seagull

The Seagull (Russian: Ча́йка, tr. Cháyka) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev.

The Seagull
Maly Theatre production in 2008
Written byAnton Chekhov
Date premiered17 October 1896
Place premieredAlexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia
Original languageRussian
GenreComedy
SettingSorin's country estate

Like Chekhov's other full-length plays, The Seagull relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully-developed characters. In contrast to the melodrama of mainstream 19th-century theatre, lurid actions (such as Konstantin's suicide attempts) are not shown onstage. Characters tend to speak in subtext rather than directly.[1] The character Trigorin is considered one of Chekhov's greatest male roles.

The opening night of the first production was a famous failure. Vera Komissarzhevskaya, playing Nina, was so intimidated by the hostility of the audience that she lost her voice.[2] Chekhov left the audience and spent the last two acts behind the scenes. When supporters wrote to him that the production later became a success, he assumed that they were merely trying to be kind.[2] When Konstantin Stanislavski, the seminal Russian theatre practitioner of the time, directed it in 1898 for his Moscow Art Theatre, the play was a triumph. Stanislavski's production became "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama".[3]

Stanislavski's direction caused The Seagull to be perceived as a tragedy through overzealousness with the concept of subtext, whereas Chekhov intended it to be a comedy.

Writing edit

 
Guest cottage at Melikhovo where Chekhov wrote The Seagull

Chekhov purchased the Melikhovo farm in 1892, and ordered a lodge built in the middle of a cherry orchard. The lodge had three rooms, one containing a bed and another a writing table. Chekhov eventually moved in, and in a letter written in October 1895 he wrote:

I am writing a play which I shall probably not finish before the end of November. I am writing it not without pleasure, though I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage. It's a comedy, there are three women's parts, six men's, four acts, landscapes (view over a lake); a great deal of conversation about literature, little action, tons of love.[4]

Thus he acknowledged a departure from traditional dramatic action. This departure became a hallmark of Chekhovian theater. Chekhov's statement also reflects his view of the play as a comedy, a view he maintained towards all his plays. After the play's disastrous opening night, his friend Aleksey Suvorin chided him for being "womanish" and accused him of being in "a funk." Chekhov vigorously denied this, stating:

Why this libel? After the performance, I had supper at Romanov's. On my word of honor. Then I went to bed, slept soundly, and the next day went home without uttering a sound of complaint. If I had been in a funk I should have run from editor to editor and actor to actor, should have nervously entreated them to be considerate, should nervously have inserted useless corrections, and should have spent two or three weeks in Petersburg fussing over my Seagull, in excitement, in a cold perspiration, in lamentation... I acted as coldly and reasonably as a man who has made an offer, received a refusal, and has nothing left but to go. Yes, my vanity was stung, but you know it was not a bolt from the blue; I was expecting a failure and was prepared for it, as I warned you with perfect sincerity beforehand.

And a month later:

I thought that if I had written and put on the stage a play so obviously brimming over with monstrous defects, I had lost all instinct and that, therefore, my machinery must have gone wrong for good.

The eventual success of the play, both in the remainder of its first run and in the subsequent staging by the Moscow Art Theatre under Stanislavski, encouraged Chekhov to remain a playwright and led to the overwhelming success of his next endeavor, Uncle Vanya, and indeed to the rest of his dramatic work.

Title edit

The English title for the play The Seagull is a potentially misleading translation of the title from its original Russian. Although the words "gull" and "seagull" are often used interchangeably in English, the text of the play makes no mention of the sea and is set on an estate somewhere in the inland regions of central Russia or Ukraine. The titular gull in question was likely meant by Chekov to be a black-headed gull or common gull. A more exact translation of the title would thus be The Gull, as the word "seagull" could erroneously evoke maritime connotations when no such imagery was intended by the playwright.

Characters edit

 
Chekhov reads The Seagull with the Moscow Art Theatre company. Chekhov reads (centre), on Chekhov's right, Konstantin Stanislavski is seated, and next to him, Olga Knipper. Stanislavski's wife, Maria Lilina, is seated to Chekhov's left. On the far right side of the photograph, Vsevolod Meyerhold is seated. Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko stands in the far left side of the photograph.
  • Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina – an actress, married surname Trepleva
  • Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev – Irina's son, a young man
  • Pyotr Nikolayevich Sorin – Irina's brother, owner of the country estate
  • Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya – a young woman, the daughter of a rich landowner
  • Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev – a retired lieutenant and the manager of Sorin's estate
  • Polina Andreyevna – Shamrayev's wife
  • Masha – her daughter
  • Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin – a novelist
  • Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn – a doctor
  • Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko – a teacher in love with Masha.
  • Yakov – a workman
  • Cook
  • Maid

Plot edit

Act I edit

Pyotr Sorin is a retired senior civil servant in failing health at his country estate. His sister, actress Irina Arkadina, arrives at the estate for a brief vacation with her lover, the writer Boris Trigorin. Pyotr and his guests gather at an outdoor stage to see an unconventional play that Irina's son, Konstantin Treplev, has written and directed. The play-within-a-play features Nina Zarechnaya, a young woman who lives on a neighboring estate, as the "soul of the world" in a time far in the future. The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a new theatrical form. It is a dense symbolist work. Irina laughs at the play, finding it ridiculous and incomprehensible; the performance ends prematurely after audience interruption and Konstantin storms off in humiliation. Irina does not seem concerned about her son, who has not found his way in the world. Although others ridicule Konstantin's drama, the physician Yevgeny Dorn praises him.

Act I also sets up the play's various romantic triangles. The schoolteacher Semyon Medvedenko loves Masha, the daughter of the estate's steward Ilya Shamrayev and his wife Polina Andryevna. However, Masha is in love with Konstantin, who is in love with Nina, but Nina falls for Trigorin. Polina is in an affair with Yevgeny. When Masha tells Yevgeny about her longing for Konstantin, Yevgeny helplessly blames the lake for making everybody feel romantic.

Act II edit

A few days later, in the afternoon, characters are outside the estate. Arkadina, after reminiscing about happier times, engages in a heated argument with the house steward Shamrayev and decides to leave. Nina lingers behind after the group leaves, and Konstantin arrives to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified at the gift. Konstantin sees Trigorin approaching and leaves in a jealous fit.

Nina asks Trigorin to tell her about the writer's life; he replies that it is not an easy one. Nina says that she knows the life of an actress is not easy either, but she wants more than anything to be one. Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull." Arkadina calls for Trigorin, and he leaves as she tells him that she has changed her mind – they will be leaving immediately. Nina lingers behind, enthralled with Trigorin's celebrity and modesty, and gushes, "My dream!"

Act III edit

Inside the estate, Arkadina and Trigorin have decided to depart. Between acts Konstantin attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head, but the bullet only grazed his skull. He spends the majority of Act III with his scalp heavily bandaged.

Nina finds Trigorin eating breakfast and presents him with a medallion that proclaims her devotion to him, using a line from one of Trigorin's own books: "If you ever need my life, come and take it." She retreats after begging for one last chance to see Trigorin before he leaves. Arkadina appears, followed by Sorin, whose health has continued to deteriorate. Trigorin leaves to continue packing. After a brief argument between Arkadina and Sorin, Sorin collapses in grief. He is helped off by Medvedenko. Konstantin enters and asks his mother to change his bandage. As she is doing this, Konstantin disparages Trigorin, eliciting another argument. When Trigorin reenters, Konstantin leaves in tears.

Trigorin asks Arkadina if they can stay at the estate. She flatters and cajoles him until he agrees to return with her to Moscow. After she has left the room, Nina comes to say her final goodbye to Trigorin and to inform him that she is running away to become an actress against her parents' wishes. They kiss passionately and make plans to meet again in Moscow.

Act IV edit

It is winter two years later, in the drawing room that has been converted to Konstantin's study. Masha finally accepted Medvedenko's marriage proposal, and they have a child together, though Masha still nurses an unrequited love for Konstantin. Various characters discuss what has happened in the two years that have passed: Nina and Trigorin lived together in Moscow for a time until he abandoned her and went back to Arkadina. Nina gave birth to Trigorin's baby, but it died in a short time. Nina never achieved any real success as an actress, and she is currently on a tour of the provinces with a small theatre group. Konstantin has had some short stories published, but he is increasingly depressed. Sorin's health is still failing, and the people at the estate have telegraphed for Arkadina to come for his final days.

Most of the play's characters go to the drawing room to play a game of bingo. Konstantin does not join them, instead working on a manuscript at his desk. After the group leaves to eat dinner, Konstantin hears someone at the back door. He is surprised to find Nina, whom he invites inside. Nina tells Konstantin about her life over the last two years. Konstantin says that he followed Nina. She starts to compare herself to the gull that Konstantin killed in Act II, then rejects that and says "I am an actress." She tells him that she was forced to tour with a second-rate theatre company after the death of the child she had with Trigorin, but she seems to have a newfound confidence. Konstantin pleads with her to stay, but she is in such disarray that his pleading means nothing. She embraces Konstantin, and leaves. Despondent, Konstantin spends two minutes silently tearing up his manuscripts before leaving the study.

The group reenters and returns to the bingo game. There is a sudden gunshot from off-stage, and Dorn goes to investigate. He returns and takes Trigorin aside. Dorn tells Trigorin to somehow get Arkadina away, for Konstantin has just shot himself.

Performance history edit

Premiere in St. Petersburg edit

The first night of The Seagull on 17 October 1896 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg was a disaster, booed by the audience. The hostile audience intimidated Vera Komissarzhevskaya so severely that she lost her voice. Some considered her the best actor in Russia who, according to Chekhov, had moved people to tears as Nina in rehearsal.[2] The next day, Chekhov, who had taken refuge backstage for the last two acts, announced to Suvorin that he was finished with writing plays.[5] When supporters assured him that later performances were more successful, Chekhov assumed they were just being kind. The Seagull impressed the playwright and friend of Chekhov Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, however, who said Chekhov should have won the Griboyedov prize that year for The Seagull instead of himself.[6]

 
Studio portrait of Stanislavski as Trigorin from the 1898 Moscow Art Theatre production[7]

Moscow Art Theatre production edit

Nemirovich overcame Chekhov's refusal to allow the play to appear in Moscow and convinced Stanislavski to direct the play for their innovative and newly founded Moscow Art Theatre in 1898.[8] Stanislavski prepared a detailed directorial score, which indicated when the actors should "wipe away dribble, blow their noses, smack their lips, wipe away sweat, or clean their teeth and nails with matchsticks", as well as organising a tight control of the overall mise en scène.[9] This approach was intended to facilitate the unified expression of the inner action that Stanislavski perceived to be hidden beneath the surface of the play in its subtext.[10] Stanislavski's directorial score was published in 1938.[11]

Stanislavski played Trigorin, while Vsevolod Meyerhold, the future director and practitioner (whom Stanislavski on his death-bed declared to be "my sole heir in the theatre"), played Konstantin, and Olga Knipper (Chekhov's future wife) played Arkadina.[12] The production opened on 17 December 1898 with a sense of crisis in the air in the theatre; most of the actors were mildly self-tranquilised with Valerian drops.[13] In a letter to Chekhov, one audience member described how:

In the first act something special started, if you can so describe a mood of excitement in the audience that seemed to grow and grow. Most people walked through the auditorium and corridors with strange faces, looking as if it were their birthday and, indeed, (dear God I'm not joking) it was perfectly possible to go up to some completely strange woman and say: "What a play? Eh?"[14]

Nemirovich-Danchenko described the applause, which came after a prolonged silence, as bursting from the audience like a dam breaking.[15] The production received unanimous praise from the press.[15]

It was not until 1 May 1899 that Chekhov saw the production, in a performance without sets but in make-up and costumes at the Paradiz Theatre.[16] He praised the production but was less keen on Stanislavski's own performance; he objected to the "soft, weak-willed tone" in his interpretation (shared by Nemirovich) of Trigorin and entreated Nemirovich to "put some spunk into him or something".[17] He proposed that the play be published with Stanislavski's score of the production's mise en scène.[18] Chekhov's collaboration with Stanislavski proved crucial to the creative development of both men. Stanislavski's attention to psychological realism and ensemble playing coaxed the buried subtleties from the play and revived Chekhov's interest in writing for the stage. Chekhov's unwillingness to explain or expand on the script forced Stanislavski to dig beneath the surface of the text in ways that were new in theatre.[19] The Moscow Art Theatre to this day bears the seagull as its emblem to commemorate the historic production that gave it its identity.[20]

2001 Public Theatre edit

The Joseph Papp Public Theater presented Chekhov's play as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival summer season in Central Park from July 25, 2001 to August 26, 2001. The production, directed by Mike Nichols, starred Meryl Streep as Arkadina, Christopher Walken as Sorin, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Treplyov, John Goodman as Shamrayev, Marcia Gay Harden as Masha, Kevin Kline as Trigorin, Debra Monk as Polina, Stephen Spinella as Medvedenko, and Natalie Portman as Nina.

Other notable productions edit

Uta Hagen made her Broadway debut as Nina, at the age of 18, in a production with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1938 at the Shubert Theatre.

In November 1992, a Broadway staging directed by Marshall W. Mason opened at Lyceum Theatre, New York. The production starred Tyne Daly as Arkadina, Ethan Hawke as Treplyov, Jon Voight as Trigorin, and Laura Linney as Nina. In 1998, a production by Daniela Thomas, assisted by Luiz Päetow, toured Brazil under the title Da Gaivota, with Fernanda Montenegro as Arkadina, Matheus Nachtergaele as Treplyov, and Fernanda Torres as Nina.[21]

In early 2007, the Royal Court Theatre staged a production of The Seagull starring Kristin Scott Thomas as Arkadina, Mackenzie Crook as Treplyov and Carey Mulligan as Nina. It also featured Chiwetel Ejiofor and Art Malik. The production was directed by Ian Rickson, and received positive reviews, including The Metro Newspaper calling it "practically perfect". It ran from January 18 to March 17, and Scott Thomas won an Olivier Award for her performance.

In 2007/2008, a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company toured internationally before coming into residence at the West End's New London Theatre until 12 January 2008. It starred William Gaunt and Ian McKellen as Sorin (who alternated with William Gaunt in the role, as McKellen also played the title role in King Lear), Richard Goulding as Treplyov, Frances Barber as Arkadina, Jonathan Hyde as Dorn, Monica Dolan as Masha, and Romola Garai as Nina. Garai in particular received rave reviews, The Independent calling her a "woman on the edge of stardom",[22] and the London Evening Standard calling her "superlative", and stating that the play was "distinguished by the illuminating, psychological insights of Miss Garai's performance."[23]

The Classic Stage Company in New York City revived the work on 13 March 2008 in a production of Paul Schmidt's translation directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev. This production was notable for the casting of Dianne Wiest in the role of Arkadina, and Alan Cumming as Trigorin.

On 16 September 2008, the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway began previews of Ian Rickson's production of The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas reprising her role as Arkadina. The cast also included Peter Sarsgaard as Trigorin, Mackenzie Crook as Treplyov, Art Malik as Dorn, Carey Mulligan as Nina, Zoe Kazan as Masha, and Ann Dowd as Polina.[24]

In 2011, a new version directed by Golden Mask winner Yuri Butusov debuted at Konstantin Raikin's Satyricon theater, notable for its return to comedy and "Brechtian-style techniques."[25] In 2017 and in coordination with Butusov, a production was filmed and subtitled in English by the Stage Russia project.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged Seagull in the New Theatre from 22 February until 22 June 2012, adapted and directed by Libby Appel.[26][27]

In 2014, a translation into Afrikaans under the title Die seemeeu, directed by Christiaan Olwagen and starring Sandra Prinsloo, was staged at the Aardklop arts festival in Potchefstroom.[28]

In October 2014, it was announced that the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre would present a new version of The Seagull by Torben Betts in 2015.[29] The play opened on 19 June 2015 and received critical acclaim for its design by Jon Bausor and the new adaptation by Betts.[30]

In January 2015, Toronto's Crow's Theatre produced The Seagull in association with Canadian Stage and The Company Theatre. Helmed by Crow's Theatre's Artistic Director Chris Abraham, the creative team was composed of set and costume designer Julie Fox, lighting designer Kimberly Purtell and sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne.[31] The Robert Falls adaptation, based on a translation by George Calderon, featured an all-star Canadian cast:

In March 2015, Hurrah Hurrah and the Hot Blooded Theatre Company presented The Seagull in an unused shop-front with the help of The Rocks Pop-up.[33]

In 2016, Thomas Ostermeier, director of Berlin's Schaubühne theatre, directed The Seagull at the Théâtre de Vidy [fr], Lausanne.[34]

In 2017, a new version by Simon Stephens was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, starring Lesley Sharp as Irina.

In 2020, Anya Reiss's adaptation of The Seagull began previews on 11 March in the Playhouse Theatre, starring Emilia Clarke as Nina and Indira Varma as Irina.[35] The production was suspended on 16 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic but subsequently reopened at the Harold Pinter Theatre in July 2022 and ran until September.[36][37] Also in 2020, the Auckland Theatre Company presented an on-line production during the COVID-19 lock down, using the device of a Zoom meeting for the stage. It was adapted by Eli Kent and Eleanor Bishop, who also directed it, with rehearsals and performances carried out online.[38] It was well received by critics around the world, with The Scotsman declaring it one of the "best plays to watch online."[39]

In March 2021, the Crane Creations Theatre Company led a play reading with its professional theatre artist team on its monthly Play Date. The Play Date aims to raise awareness and appreciation of playwrights from around the world.

Analysis and criticism edit

It has been remarked that the play was "a spectacle of waste" (such as at the beginning of the play when Medvedenko asks Masha why she always wears black, she answers "Because I'm in mourning for my life.").[40]

The play also has an intertextual relationship with Shakespeare's Hamlet.[41] Arkadina and Treplyov quote lines from it before the play-within-a-play in the first act (and this device is itself used in Hamlet). There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well. For instance, Treplyov seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from his uncle Claudius.

Translation edit

The Seagull was first translated into English for a performance at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow, in November 1909.[42] Since that time, there have been numerous translations of the text—between 1998 and 2004 alone there were 25 published versions.[42] In the introduction to his own version, Tom Stoppard wrote: "You can't have too many English Seagulls: at the intersection of all of them, the Russian one will be forever elusive."[43] In fact, the problems start with the title of the play: there's no sea anywhere near the play's settings, so the bird in question was in all likelihood a lake-dwelling gull such as the common gull (larus canus), rather than a nautical variant. In Russian both kinds of birds are named chayka, simply meaning "gull", as in English. However, the title persists as it is much more euphonious in English than the much shorter and blunter "The Gull", which comes across as too forceful and direct to represent the encompassing vague and partially hidden feelings beneath the surface. Therefore, the faint reference to the sea has been seen as a more fitting representation of the intent of the play.

Some early translations of The Seagull have come under criticism from modern Russian scholars. Marian Fell's translation, in particular, has been criticized for its elementary mistakes and total ignorance of Russian life and culture.[42][44] Peter France, translator and author of the book The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, wrote of Chekhov's multiple adaptations:

Proliferation and confusion of translation reign in the plays. Throughout the history of Chekhov on the British and American stages we see a version translated, adapted, cobbled together for each new major production, very often by a theatre director with no knowledge of the original, working from a crib prepared by a Russian with no knowledge of the stage.[45]

Notable English translations edit

Translator Year Publisher Notes
George Calderon 1909 Glasgow Repertory Theatre This is the first known English translation of The Seagull. This translation premiered at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow, on 2 November 1909, also directed by Calderon.[46]
Marian Fell 1912 Charles Scribner's Sons First published English language translation of The Seagull in the United States, performed at the Bandbox Theatre on Broadway by the Washington Square Players in 1916.[47] Complete text from Project Gutenberg here.[48]
Fred Eisemann 1913 Poet Lore Appeared in Volume 26, Number 1 (New Year's 1913) of Poet Lore magazine[49][50]
Constance Garnett 1923 Bantam Books Performed on Broadway at the Civic Repertory Theatre in 1929,[51] directed by Eva Le Gallienne.
Stark Young 1939 Charles Scribner's Sons Used in the 1938 Broadway production starring Uta Hagen as Nina,[52] as well as the 1975 film directed by John Desmond.[53]
Elisaveta Fen 1954 Penguin Classics Along with Constance Garnett's translation, this is one of the most widely read translations of The Seagull.[54]
David Magarshack 1956 Hill & Wang Commissioned for the 1956 West End production at the Saville Theatre, directed by Michael Macowan, and starring Diana Wynyard, Lyndon Brook, and Hugh Williams.[55]
Moura Budberg 1968 Sidney Lumet Productions Commissioned and used for the 1968 film directed by Sidney Lumet.[56]
Tennessee Williams 1981 New Directions Publishing Williams' "free adaptation" is titled The Notebook of Trigorin. First produced by the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company in 1981, the United States premier occurred at the Cincinnati Playhouse in 1996, starring Lynn Redgrave as Madame Arkadina. Williams was still revising the script when he died in 1983.[57]
Tania Alexander & Charles Sturridge 1985 Applause Books Commissioned and used for the 1985 Oxford Playhouse production directed by Charles Sturridge and Vanessa Redgrave.
Michael Frayn 1988 Methuen Publishing Translated Nina's famous line "I am a seagull," to "I am the seagull," as in the seagull in Trigorin's story. This was justified by Frayn, in part, because of the non-existence of indefinite or definite articles in the Russian language.[58]
Pam Gems 1991 Nick Hern Books
David French 1992 Talonbooks Used in the 1992 Broadway production by the National Actors Theatre at the Lyceum Theatre, directed by Marshall W. Mason and featuring Tyne Daly, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney, and Jon Voight.[59]
Paul Schmidt 1997 Harper Perennial Used in the 2008 off-Broadway production at the Classic Stage Company, starring Dianne Wiest, Alan Cumming, and Kelli Garner.[60]
Tom Stoppard 1997 Faber and Faber Premiered at the Old Vic theatre in London on 28 April 1997. Its United States premiere in July 2001 in New York City drew crowds who sometimes waited 15 hours for tickets.[61]
Peter Gill 2000 Oberon Books
Peter Carson 2002 Penguin Classics
Christopher Hampton 2007 Faber and Faber Used in the Royal Court Theatre's 2008 production of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson and featuring Peter Sarsgaard, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook and Carey Mulligan.[62]
Benedict Andrews 2011 Currency Press Used in the 2011 production at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre, starring Judy Davis, David Wenham, Emily Barclay, Anita Hegh, Gareth Davies, Dylan Young and Maeve Dermody, adapted for an Australian setting, with minor dialogue changes.[63][64]
Anya Reiss 2014 Premiered at the Southwark Playhouse.[65]
David Hare 2015 Faber and Faber Presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre in tandem with Hare's translations of Platonov and Ivanov.[66]

Adaptations edit

Theatre edit

The American playwright Tennessee Williams adapted the play as The Notebook of Trigorin, which premiered in 1981. That year, Thomas Kilroy's adaptation, The Seagull also premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London. The Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor wrote an adaptation called His Greatness.

In 2004, American playwright Regina Taylor's African-American adaptation, Drowning Crow, was performed on Broadway.

Emily Mann wrote and directed an adaptation called A Seagull in the Hamptons. The play premiered at the McCarter Theatre May 2008.[67]

Libby Appel did a new version that premiered in 2011 at the Marin Theatre in Mill Valley using newly discovered material from Chekhov's original manuscripts. In pre-Revolutionary Russia, plays underwent censorship from two sources, the government censor and directors. The removed passages were saved in the archives of Russia, and unavailable till the fall of the Iron Curtain.[68]

In 2011, Benedict Andrews re-imagined the work as being set in a modern Australian beach in his production of the play at Sydney's Belvoir Theatre, which starred Judy Davis, David Wenham and Maeve Darmody. He did this to explore the ideas of liminal space and time.

In October 2011, it was announced that a contemporary Hamptons-set film adaptation, Relative Insanity, will be directed by the acting coach Larry Moss, starring David Duchovny, Helen Hunt, Maggie Grace and Joan Chen.[69][70][needs update]

In 2013, a deconstruction of the play by Aaron Posner, set in the modern day under the title Stupid Fucking Bird, was premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.; it won the 2014 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical[71] and has been staged widely across American theatres.

A 2022 gender fluid adaptation of the Tom Stoppard version was completed by the Doris Place Players to great success in Los Angeles.

In 2022, Emilia Clarke starred in Anya Reiss' adaption in Harold Pinter Theatre in London. It was described as a unique 21st century modernisation.[72]

Thomas Bradshaw wrote a modern day adaptation set in New York's Hudson Valley entitled The Seagull/Woodstock, NY. The play was produced Off-Broadway by The New Group in 2023 and starred Parker Posey, Nat Wolff, Ato Essandoh, and Hari Nef.

Film edit

Sidney Lumet's 1968 film The Sea Gull used Moura Budberg's translation. The play was also adapted as the Russian film The Seagull in 1972.

The 2003 film La petite Lili from director Claude Miller, starring Ludivine Sagnier as Nina renamed Lili, updates Chekhov's play to contemporary France in the world of the cinema.

Christian Camargo directed a 2014 film adaptation of the play, titled Days and Nights, set in rural New England during the 1980s. The film starred Camargo, William Hurt, Allison Janney, Katie Holmes, Mark Rylance, and Juliet Rylance.

An American film titled The Seagull went into production in 2015.[73] It was released on May 11, 2018, by Sony Pictures Classics; directed by Michael Mayer with a screenplay by Stephen Karam, starring Annette Bening and Saoirse Ronan.

A contemporary Afrikaans-language film adaptation directed by Christiaan Olwagen, titled Die Seemeeu, debuted at the Kyknet Silwerskermfees on 23 August 2018. Cintaine Schutte won the Best Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of Masha.

Opera edit

The play was the basis for the 1974 opera The Seagull by Thomas Pasatieri to an English libretto by Kenward Elmslie.

Musical edit

The 1987 musical Birds of Paradise by Winnie Holzman and David Evans is a metatheatrical adaptation, both loosely following the original play and containing a musical version of the play as the Konstantin equivalent's play.

In 2015, the play was adapted into Songbird, a country musical by Michael Kimmel and Lauren Pritchard. Songbird sets its story in Nashville and centers around Tammy Trip, a fading country star. Tammy returns to the honky tonk where she got her start to help her estranged son launch his own music career. The show was produced at 59E59 Theaters and featured Kate Baldwin and Erin Dilly. It was recognized as a New York Times Critic's Pick.[74]

Ballet edit

It was made into a ballet by John Neumeier with his Hamburg Ballet company in June 2002. This version re-imagined the main characters as coming from the world of dance. Arkadina became a famous prima ballerina, Nina was a young dancer on the brink of her career. Konstantin appeared as a revolutionary young choreographer and Trigorin as an older, more conventional choreographer.[75]

An earlier ballet in two acts, by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, was first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1980.

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ Benedetti 1989, 26.
  2. ^ a b c Chekhov (1920); Letter to A. F. Koni, 11 November 1896. Available online at Project Gutenberg.
  3. ^ Rudnitsky 1981, 8.
  4. ^ Chekhov 1920.
  5. ^ Chekhov 1920, Letter to Suvorin, 18 October 1896.
  6. ^ Benedetti 1989, 16) and Benedetti 1999, 59, 74.
  7. ^ "Elegantly coiffured, clad in evening dress, mournfully contemplating the middle distance with pencil and notepad, suggests someone more intent on resurrecting the dead seagull in deathless prose than plotting the casual seduction of the ardent female by his side." – Worrall 1996, 107.
  8. ^ Benedetti 1999, 73 and Benedetti 1989, 25.
  9. ^ Worrall 1996, 109 and Braun 1981, 62–63.
  10. ^ Braun 1981, 62–63.
  11. ^ Benedetti 1999, 79. For an English translation of Stanislavski's score, see Balukhaty 1952.
  12. ^ Braun 1981, 62) and Benedetti 1999, 79–81.
  13. ^ Benedetti 1999, 85, 386.
  14. ^ Quoted by Benedetti 1999, 86.
  15. ^ a b Benedetti 1999, 86.
  16. ^ Benedetti 1999, 89.
  17. ^ Benedetti 1999, 89–90 and Worrall 1996, 108.
  18. ^ Benedetti 1999, 90.
  19. ^ Chekhov and the Art Theatre, in Stanislavski's words, were united in a common desire "to achieve artistic simplicity and truth on the stage"; Allen 2001, 11.
  20. ^ Braun 1981, 2, 64.
  21. ^ "Da Gaivota". Folha newspaper. 22 December 2015.
  22. ^ . The Independent. London. 15 March 2007. Archived from the original on June 14, 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  23. ^ "The fall of a high-flying bird" by Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard (28 November 2007)
  24. ^ "Marquee value: The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre" 2012-10-20 at the Wayback Machine by Matthew Blank, Playbill (18 August 2008)
  25. ^ Ludman, Mark (8 February 2019). "REVIEW: The Seagull, Satirikon Theatre, Moscow (Stage Russia) ✭✭✭✭✭". British Theatre.com. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  26. ^ Seagull, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2012
  27. ^ Hughley, Marty (5 March 2012). "Oregon Shakespeare Festival reviews: season-opening shows hit their marks (and, in one case, Marx)". The Oregonian. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  28. ^ "Die seemeeu, performance details". Aardklop. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  29. ^ "Regent's Park Open Air Theatre 2015 Season". Open Air Theatre. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  30. ^ Cavendish, Dominic: "The Seagull, Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, review: 'terrific'", The Telegraph, 26 June 2015
  31. ^ "The Seagull - Streetcar Crowsnest". crowstheatre.com. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  32. ^ "The Seagull | The Toronto Theatre Database". Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  33. ^ David Kary (2015-03-23). "The Rocks Pop-Up Project- The Seagull Review". Sydney Arts Guide. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  34. ^ "The Seagull". Théâtre de Vidy. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  35. ^ Sullivan, Lindsey. "Jessica Chastain-Led A Doll's House & The Seagull with Emilia Clarke Postponed in London", Broadway.com, 28 May 2020
  36. ^ Deen, Sarah. "Emilia Clarke's play The Seagull suspended as London's West End shuts down over coronavirus pandemic", Metro, 17 March 2020
  37. ^ "The Seagull review – Emilia Clarke makes her West End debut | WhatsOnStage".
  38. ^ "Chekhov's The Seagull, a new online version". www.atc.co.nz.
  39. ^ "Five of the best plays to watch online in the coming days". www.scotsman.com.
  40. ^ "Servants of Art". The New Yorker. 2008-03-24. Retrieved 2021-03-14. In the play's opening moments, Masha (the beautiful Marjan Neshat) walks onstage with a lovelorn Medvedenko (Greg Keller) in tow; he asks her, "Why do you always wear black?," and she replies, "Because I'm in mourning for my life." Chekhov suggests that we spend far more time killing life than living it. And the various ways in which we murder our own happiness—through self-absorption, or by rejecting purehearted offers of love because we're taken in by glamour—constitute the majority of the play's action. Among other things, "The Seagull" is a spectacle of waste.
  41. ^ Miles 1993, 220, chapter "Chekhov into English: the case of The Seagull", quote: "A dominant motif in the play is the recurrent Hamlet theme."
  42. ^ a b c Henry, Peter (March 2008). (PDF). British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies: 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  43. ^ Stoppard, Tom (August 2001). The Seagull. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-19270-0.
  44. ^ Byrne, Terry (4 July 2008). "For Seagull, director dove into translation". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  45. ^ France, Peter (24 February 2000). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford University Press. p. 600. ISBN 978-0-19-818359-4.
  46. ^ Tracy, Robert (Spring 1960). "A Cexov Anniversary". The Slavic and East European Journal. 4 (1): 25–34. doi:10.2307/304054. JSTOR 304054.
  47. ^ "The Seagull (1916 production)". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
  48. ^ "The Sea-gull, by Anton Checkov". Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  49. ^ Sendich, Munir (1985). "ANTON CHEKHOV IN ENGLISH: A Comprehensive Bibliography of Works About and By Him (1889-1984)". Russian Language Journal / Русский язык. 39 (132/134). American Councils for International Education ACTR / ACCELS: 227–379. JSTOR 43668947.
  50. ^ @poetloremag (May 22, 2018). "Did you know? In 1913, Poet Lore published the first full English translation of Anton Chekhov's, "The Seagull." Back then, the playwright's name was transliterated as "Tchekkof." Catch the film adaptation in theaters now!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  51. ^ Civic Repertory Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
  52. ^ "The Seagull (1938 production)". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
  53. ^ "The Seagull (1975 film)". IMDb.com. Internet Movie Database.
  54. ^ Kirsch, Adam (July 1997). "Chekhov in American". The Atlantic. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
  55. ^ Miles 1993, 242.
  56. ^ "The Sea Gull (1968 film)". IMDb.com. Internet Movie Database.
  57. ^ Klein, Alvin (28 January 2001). "Theater Review; Start With Chekhov; Add Lots of Williams". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  58. ^ Callow, Simon (24 May 2008). "The play's the thing". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  59. ^ "The Seagull (1992 production)". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
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  65. ^ Brennan, Clare (1 March 2014). "The Seagull review – Anya Reiss's thrilling/frustrating take on Chekhov". The Guardian.
  66. ^ Holly Williams (2015-10-04). "Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull: David Hare is determined to prove young Chekhov is more glorious than old Chekhov". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  67. ^ "McCarter Theatre Center". Mccarter.org. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  68. ^ "MTC Dramapedia | Overview | Seagull". Archived from the original on 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
  69. ^ "David Duchovny to star in film adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull" by Matt Trueman, The Guardian, 18 October 2011
  70. ^ "Relative Insanity". IMDb.com. Internet Movie Database.
  71. ^ "Helen Hayes Awards: The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical". Abouttheartists.com. 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  72. ^ "The Seagull | Official Box Office | Harold Pinter Theatre". www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-09-03.
  73. ^ Daniels, Nia (June 30, 2015). "Principal photography underway on The Seagull". kftv.com. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  74. ^ Isherwood, Charles (28 October 2015). "Review: Songbird, a Honky-Tonk Take on Chekhov". New York Times. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
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Sources

  • Allen, David. 2001. Performing Chekhov. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18935-7.
  • Balukhaty, Sergei Dimitrievich, ed. 1952. 'The Seagull' Produced by Stanislavsky. Trans. David Magarshack. London: Denis Dobson. New York : Theatre Arts Books.
  • Benedetti, Jean. 1989. Stanislavski: An Introduction. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1982. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-50030-6.
  • Benedetti, Jean. 1999. Stanislavski: His Life and Art. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-52520-1.
  • Braun, Edward. 1981. "Stanislavsky and Chekhov". The Director and the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski. London: Methuen. p. 59–76. ISBN 0-413-46300-1.
  • Chekhov, Anton. 1920. Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with Biographical Sketch. Trans. Constance Garnett. New York: Macmillan. Full text available online at Gutenberg
  • Gilman, Richard. 1997. Chekhov's Plays: An Opening into Eternity. New York: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07256-2
  • Miles, Patrick. 1993. Chekhov on the British Stage. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-38467-2.
  • Rudnitsky, Konstantin. 1981. Meyerhold the Director. Trans. George Petrov. Ed. Sydney Schultze. Revised translation of Rezhisser Meierkhol'd. Moscow: Academy of Sciences, 1969. ISBN 0-88233-313-5.
  • Worrall, Nick. 1996. The Moscow Art Theatre. Theatre Production Studies ser. London and NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-05598-9.

External links edit

seagull, this, article, about, play, anton, chekhov, other, uses, seagull, disambiguation, russian, Ча, йка, cháyka, play, russian, dramatist, anton, chekhov, written, 1895, first, produced, 1896, generally, considered, first, four, major, plays, dramatizes, r. This article is about the play by Anton Chekhov For other uses see Seagull disambiguation The Seagull Russian Cha jka tr Chayka is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov written in 1895 and first produced in 1896 The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin the ingenue Nina the fading actress Irina Arkadina and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev The SeagullMaly Theatre production in 2008Written byAnton ChekhovDate premiered17 October 1896Place premieredAlexandrinsky Theatre St Petersburg RussiaOriginal languageRussianGenreComedySettingSorin s country estateLike Chekhov s other full length plays The Seagull relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse fully developed characters In contrast to the melodrama of mainstream 19th century theatre lurid actions such as Konstantin s suicide attempts are not shown onstage Characters tend to speak in subtext rather than directly 1 The character Trigorin is considered one of Chekhov s greatest male roles The opening night of the first production was a famous failure Vera Komissarzhevskaya playing Nina was so intimidated by the hostility of the audience that she lost her voice 2 Chekhov left the audience and spent the last two acts behind the scenes When supporters wrote to him that the production later became a success he assumed that they were merely trying to be kind 2 When Konstantin Stanislavski the seminal Russian theatre practitioner of the time directed it in 1898 for his Moscow Art Theatre the play was a triumph Stanislavski s production became one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama 3 Stanislavski s direction caused The Seagull to be perceived as a tragedy through overzealousness with the concept of subtext whereas Chekhov intended it to be a comedy Contents 1 Writing 2 Title 3 Characters 4 Plot 4 1 Act I 4 2 Act II 4 3 Act III 4 4 Act IV 5 Performance history 5 1 Premiere in St Petersburg 5 2 Moscow Art Theatre production 5 3 2001 Public Theatre 5 4 Other notable productions 6 Analysis and criticism 7 Translation 7 1 Notable English translations 8 Adaptations 8 1 Theatre 8 2 Film 8 3 Opera 8 4 Musical 8 5 Ballet 9 References 10 External linksWriting edit nbsp Guest cottage at Melikhovo where Chekhov wrote The SeagullChekhov purchased the Melikhovo farm in 1892 and ordered a lodge built in the middle of a cherry orchard The lodge had three rooms one containing a bed and another a writing table Chekhov eventually moved in and in a letter written in October 1895 he wrote I am writing a play which I shall probably not finish before the end of November I am writing it not without pleasure though I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage It s a comedy there are three women s parts six men s four acts landscapes view over a lake a great deal of conversation about literature little action tons of love 4 Thus he acknowledged a departure from traditional dramatic action This departure became a hallmark of Chekhovian theater Chekhov s statement also reflects his view of the play as a comedy a view he maintained towards all his plays After the play s disastrous opening night his friend Aleksey Suvorin chided him for being womanish and accused him of being in a funk Chekhov vigorously denied this stating Why this libel After the performance I had supper at Romanov s On my word of honor Then I went to bed slept soundly and the next day went home without uttering a sound of complaint If I had been in a funk I should have run from editor to editor and actor to actor should have nervously entreated them to be considerate should nervously have inserted useless corrections and should have spent two or three weeks in Petersburg fussing over my Seagull in excitement in a cold perspiration in lamentation I acted as coldly and reasonably as a man who has made an offer received a refusal and has nothing left but to go Yes my vanity was stung but you know it was not a bolt from the blue I was expecting a failure and was prepared for it as I warned you with perfect sincerity beforehand And a month later I thought that if I had written and put on the stage a play so obviously brimming over with monstrous defects I had lost all instinct and that therefore my machinery must have gone wrong for good The eventual success of the play both in the remainder of its first run and in the subsequent staging by the Moscow Art Theatre under Stanislavski encouraged Chekhov to remain a playwright and led to the overwhelming success of his next endeavor Uncle Vanya and indeed to the rest of his dramatic work Title editThe English title for the play The Seagull is a potentially misleading translation of the title from its original Russian Although the words gull and seagull are often used interchangeably in English the text of the play makes no mention of the sea and is set on an estate somewhere in the inland regions of central Russia or Ukraine The titular gull in question was likely meant by Chekov to be a black headed gull or common gull A more exact translation of the title would thus be The Gull as the word seagull could erroneously evoke maritime connotations when no such imagery was intended by the playwright Characters edit nbsp Chekhov reads The Seagull with the Moscow Art Theatre company Chekhov reads centre on Chekhov s right Konstantin Stanislavski is seated and next to him Olga Knipper Stanislavski s wife Maria Lilina is seated to Chekhov s left On the far right side of the photograph Vsevolod Meyerhold is seated Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko stands in the far left side of the photograph Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina an actress married surname Trepleva Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev Irina s son a young man Pyotr Nikolayevich Sorin Irina s brother owner of the country estate Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya a young woman the daughter of a rich landowner Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev a retired lieutenant and the manager of Sorin s estate Polina Andreyevna Shamrayev s wife Masha her daughter Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin a novelist Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn a doctor Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko a teacher in love with Masha Yakov a workman Cook MaidPlot editAct I edit Pyotr Sorin is a retired senior civil servant in failing health at his country estate His sister actress Irina Arkadina arrives at the estate for a brief vacation with her lover the writer Boris Trigorin Pyotr and his guests gather at an outdoor stage to see an unconventional play that Irina s son Konstantin Treplev has written and directed The play within a play features Nina Zarechnaya a young woman who lives on a neighboring estate as the soul of the world in a time far in the future The play is Konstantin s latest attempt at creating a new theatrical form It is a dense symbolist work Irina laughs at the play finding it ridiculous and incomprehensible the performance ends prematurely after audience interruption and Konstantin storms off in humiliation Irina does not seem concerned about her son who has not found his way in the world Although others ridicule Konstantin s drama the physician Yevgeny Dorn praises him Act I also sets up the play s various romantic triangles The schoolteacher Semyon Medvedenko loves Masha the daughter of the estate s steward Ilya Shamrayev and his wife Polina Andryevna However Masha is in love with Konstantin who is in love with Nina but Nina falls for Trigorin Polina is in an affair with Yevgeny When Masha tells Yevgeny about her longing for Konstantin Yevgeny helplessly blames the lake for making everybody feel romantic Act II edit A few days later in the afternoon characters are outside the estate Arkadina after reminiscing about happier times engages in a heated argument with the house steward Shamrayev and decides to leave Nina lingers behind after the group leaves and Konstantin arrives to give her a gull that he has shot Nina is confused and horrified at the gift Konstantin sees Trigorin approaching and leaves in a jealous fit Nina asks Trigorin to tell her about the writer s life he replies that it is not an easy one Nina says that she knows the life of an actress is not easy either but she wants more than anything to be one Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses on how he could use it as a subject for a short story The plot for the short story a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake She loves the lake like a gull and she s happy and free like a gull But a man arrives by chance and when he sees her he destroys her out of sheer boredom Like this gull Arkadina calls for Trigorin and he leaves as she tells him that she has changed her mind they will be leaving immediately Nina lingers behind enthralled with Trigorin s celebrity and modesty and gushes My dream Act III edit Inside the estate Arkadina and Trigorin have decided to depart Between acts Konstantin attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head but the bullet only grazed his skull He spends the majority of Act III with his scalp heavily bandaged Nina finds Trigorin eating breakfast and presents him with a medallion that proclaims her devotion to him using a line from one of Trigorin s own books If you ever need my life come and take it She retreats after begging for one last chance to see Trigorin before he leaves Arkadina appears followed by Sorin whose health has continued to deteriorate Trigorin leaves to continue packing After a brief argument between Arkadina and Sorin Sorin collapses in grief He is helped off by Medvedenko Konstantin enters and asks his mother to change his bandage As she is doing this Konstantin disparages Trigorin eliciting another argument When Trigorin reenters Konstantin leaves in tears Trigorin asks Arkadina if they can stay at the estate She flatters and cajoles him until he agrees to return with her to Moscow After she has left the room Nina comes to say her final goodbye to Trigorin and to inform him that she is running away to become an actress against her parents wishes They kiss passionately and make plans to meet again in Moscow Act IV edit It is winter two years later in the drawing room that has been converted to Konstantin s study Masha finally accepted Medvedenko s marriage proposal and they have a child together though Masha still nurses an unrequited love for Konstantin Various characters discuss what has happened in the two years that have passed Nina and Trigorin lived together in Moscow for a time until he abandoned her and went back to Arkadina Nina gave birth to Trigorin s baby but it died in a short time Nina never achieved any real success as an actress and she is currently on a tour of the provinces with a small theatre group Konstantin has had some short stories published but he is increasingly depressed Sorin s health is still failing and the people at the estate have telegraphed for Arkadina to come for his final days Most of the play s characters go to the drawing room to play a game of bingo Konstantin does not join them instead working on a manuscript at his desk After the group leaves to eat dinner Konstantin hears someone at the back door He is surprised to find Nina whom he invites inside Nina tells Konstantin about her life over the last two years Konstantin says that he followed Nina She starts to compare herself to the gull that Konstantin killed in Act II then rejects that and says I am an actress She tells him that she was forced to tour with a second rate theatre company after the death of the child she had with Trigorin but she seems to have a newfound confidence Konstantin pleads with her to stay but she is in such disarray that his pleading means nothing She embraces Konstantin and leaves Despondent Konstantin spends two minutes silently tearing up his manuscripts before leaving the study The group reenters and returns to the bingo game There is a sudden gunshot from off stage and Dorn goes to investigate He returns and takes Trigorin aside Dorn tells Trigorin to somehow get Arkadina away for Konstantin has just shot himself Performance history editPremiere in St Petersburg edit The first night of The Seagull on 17 October 1896 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg was a disaster booed by the audience The hostile audience intimidated Vera Komissarzhevskaya so severely that she lost her voice Some considered her the best actor in Russia who according to Chekhov had moved people to tears as Nina in rehearsal 2 The next day Chekhov who had taken refuge backstage for the last two acts announced to Suvorin that he was finished with writing plays 5 When supporters assured him that later performances were more successful Chekhov assumed they were just being kind The Seagull impressed the playwright and friend of Chekhov Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko however who said Chekhov should have won the Griboyedov prize that year for The Seagull instead of himself 6 nbsp Studio portrait of Stanislavski as Trigorin from the 1898 Moscow Art Theatre production 7 Moscow Art Theatre production edit Further information Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull Nemirovich overcame Chekhov s refusal to allow the play to appear in Moscow and convinced Stanislavski to direct the play for their innovative and newly founded Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 8 Stanislavski prepared a detailed directorial score which indicated when the actors should wipe away dribble blow their noses smack their lips wipe away sweat or clean their teeth and nails with matchsticks as well as organising a tight control of the overall mise en scene 9 This approach was intended to facilitate the unified expression of the inner action that Stanislavski perceived to be hidden beneath the surface of the play in its subtext 10 Stanislavski s directorial score was published in 1938 11 Stanislavski played Trigorin while Vsevolod Meyerhold the future director and practitioner whom Stanislavski on his death bed declared to be my sole heir in the theatre played Konstantin and Olga Knipper Chekhov s future wife played Arkadina 12 The production opened on 17 December 1898 with a sense of crisis in the air in the theatre most of the actors were mildly self tranquilised with Valerian drops 13 In a letter to Chekhov one audience member described how In the first act something special started if you can so describe a mood of excitement in the audience that seemed to grow and grow Most people walked through the auditorium and corridors with strange faces looking as if it were their birthday and indeed dear God I m not joking it was perfectly possible to go up to some completely strange woman and say What a play Eh 14 Nemirovich Danchenko described the applause which came after a prolonged silence as bursting from the audience like a dam breaking 15 The production received unanimous praise from the press 15 It was not until 1 May 1899 that Chekhov saw the production in a performance without sets but in make up and costumes at the Paradiz Theatre 16 He praised the production but was less keen on Stanislavski s own performance he objected to the soft weak willed tone in his interpretation shared by Nemirovich of Trigorin and entreated Nemirovich to put some spunk into him or something 17 He proposed that the play be published with Stanislavski s score of the production s mise en scene 18 Chekhov s collaboration with Stanislavski proved crucial to the creative development of both men Stanislavski s attention to psychological realism and ensemble playing coaxed the buried subtleties from the play and revived Chekhov s interest in writing for the stage Chekhov s unwillingness to explain or expand on the script forced Stanislavski to dig beneath the surface of the text in ways that were new in theatre 19 The Moscow Art Theatre to this day bears the seagull as its emblem to commemorate the historic production that gave it its identity 20 2001 Public Theatre edit The Joseph Papp Public Theater presented Chekhov s play as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival summer season in Central Park from July 25 2001 to August 26 2001 The production directed by Mike Nichols starred Meryl Streep as Arkadina Christopher Walken as Sorin Philip Seymour Hoffman as Treplyov John Goodman as Shamrayev Marcia Gay Harden as Masha Kevin Kline as Trigorin Debra Monk as Polina Stephen Spinella as Medvedenko and Natalie Portman as Nina Other notable productions edit Uta Hagen made her Broadway debut as Nina at the age of 18 in a production with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1938 at the Shubert Theatre In November 1992 a Broadway staging directed by Marshall W Mason opened at Lyceum Theatre New York The production starred Tyne Daly as Arkadina Ethan Hawke as Treplyov Jon Voight as Trigorin and Laura Linney as Nina In 1998 a production by Daniela Thomas assisted by Luiz Paetow toured Brazil under the title Da Gaivota with Fernanda Montenegro as Arkadina Matheus Nachtergaele as Treplyov and Fernanda Torres as Nina 21 In early 2007 the Royal Court Theatre staged a production of The Seagull starring Kristin Scott Thomas as Arkadina Mackenzie Crook as Treplyov and Carey Mulligan as Nina It also featured Chiwetel Ejiofor and Art Malik The production was directed by Ian Rickson and received positive reviews including The Metro Newspaper calling it practically perfect It ran from January 18 to March 17 and Scott Thomas won an Olivier Award for her performance In 2007 2008 a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company toured internationally before coming into residence at the West End s New London Theatre until 12 January 2008 It starred William Gaunt and Ian McKellen as Sorin who alternated with William Gaunt in the role as McKellen also played the title role in King Lear Richard Goulding as Treplyov Frances Barber as Arkadina Jonathan Hyde as Dorn Monica Dolan as Masha and Romola Garai as Nina Garai in particular received rave reviews The Independent calling her a woman on the edge of stardom 22 and the London Evening Standard calling her superlative and stating that the play was distinguished by the illuminating psychological insights of Miss Garai s performance 23 The Classic Stage Company in New York City revived the work on 13 March 2008 in a production of Paul Schmidt s translation directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev This production was notable for the casting of Dianne Wiest in the role of Arkadina and Alan Cumming as Trigorin On 16 September 2008 the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway began previews of Ian Rickson s production of The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas reprising her role as Arkadina The cast also included Peter Sarsgaard as Trigorin Mackenzie Crook as Treplyov Art Malik as Dorn Carey Mulligan as Nina Zoe Kazan as Masha and Ann Dowd as Polina 24 In 2011 a new version directed by Golden Mask winner Yuri Butusov debuted at Konstantin Raikin s Satyricon theater notable for its return to comedy and Brechtian style techniques 25 In 2017 and in coordination with Butusov a production was filmed and subtitled in English by the Stage Russia project The Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged Seagull in the New Theatre from 22 February until 22 June 2012 adapted and directed by Libby Appel 26 27 In 2014 a translation into Afrikaans under the title Die seemeeu directed by Christiaan Olwagen and starring Sandra Prinsloo was staged at the Aardklop arts festival in Potchefstroom 28 In October 2014 it was announced that the Regent s Park Open Air Theatre would present a new version of The Seagull by Torben Betts in 2015 29 The play opened on 19 June 2015 and received critical acclaim for its design by Jon Bausor and the new adaptation by Betts 30 In January 2015 Toronto s Crow s Theatre produced The Seagull in association with Canadian Stage and The Company Theatre Helmed by Crow s Theatre s Artistic Director Chris Abraham the creative team was composed of set and costume designer Julie Fox lighting designer Kimberly Purtell and sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne 31 The Robert Falls adaptation based on a translation by George Calderon featured an all star Canadian cast Yanna McIntosh as Arkadina Philip Riccio as Konstantin Eric Peterson as Sorin Christine Horne as Nina Tara Nicodemo as Polina Tony Nappo as Shamrayev Bahia Watson as Masha Tom Rooney as Trigorin Tom McCamus as Dorn Gregory Prest as Medvedenko Marcus Jamin as Yakov 32 In March 2015 Hurrah Hurrah and the Hot Blooded Theatre Company presented The Seagull in an unused shop front with the help of The Rocks Pop up 33 In 2016 Thomas Ostermeier director of Berlin s Schaubuhne theatre directed The Seagull at the Theatre de Vidy fr Lausanne 34 In 2017 a new version by Simon Stephens was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in London starring Lesley Sharp as Irina In 2020 Anya Reiss s adaptation of The Seagull began previews on 11 March in the Playhouse Theatre starring Emilia Clarke as Nina and Indira Varma as Irina 35 The production was suspended on 16 March due to the COVID 19 pandemic but subsequently reopened at the Harold Pinter Theatre in July 2022 and ran until September 36 37 Also in 2020 the Auckland Theatre Company presented an on line production during the COVID 19 lock down using the device of a Zoom meeting for the stage It was adapted by Eli Kent and Eleanor Bishop who also directed it with rehearsals and performances carried out online 38 It was well received by critics around the world with The Scotsman declaring it one of the best plays to watch online 39 In March 2021 the Crane Creations Theatre Company led a play reading with its professional theatre artist team on its monthly Play Date The Play Date aims to raise awareness and appreciation of playwrights from around the world Analysis and criticism editThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it August 2011 It has been remarked that the play was a spectacle of waste such as at the beginning of the play when Medvedenko asks Masha why she always wears black she answers Because I m in mourning for my life 40 The play also has an intertextual relationship with Shakespeare s Hamlet 41 Arkadina and Treplyov quote lines from it before the play within a play in the first act and this device is itself used in Hamlet There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well For instance Treplyov seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from his uncle Claudius Translation editThe Seagull was first translated into English for a performance at the Royalty Theatre Glasgow in November 1909 42 Since that time there have been numerous translations of the text between 1998 and 2004 alone there were 25 published versions 42 In the introduction to his own version Tom Stoppard wrote You can t have too many English Seagulls at the intersection of all of them the Russian one will be forever elusive 43 In fact the problems start with the title of the play there s no sea anywhere near the play s settings so the bird in question was in all likelihood a lake dwelling gull such as the common gull larus canus rather than a nautical variant In Russian both kinds of birds are named chayka simply meaning gull as in English However the title persists as it is much more euphonious in English than the much shorter and blunter The Gull which comes across as too forceful and direct to represent the encompassing vague and partially hidden feelings beneath the surface Therefore the faint reference to the sea has been seen as a more fitting representation of the intent of the play Some early translations of The Seagull have come under criticism from modern Russian scholars Marian Fell s translation in particular has been criticized for its elementary mistakes and total ignorance of Russian life and culture 42 44 Peter France translator and author of the book The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation wrote of Chekhov s multiple adaptations Proliferation and confusion of translation reign in the plays Throughout the history of Chekhov on the British and American stages we see a version translated adapted cobbled together for each new major production very often by a theatre director with no knowledge of the original working from a crib prepared by a Russian with no knowledge of the stage 45 Notable English translations edit Translator Year Publisher NotesGeorge Calderon 1909 Glasgow Repertory Theatre This is the first known English translation of The Seagull This translation premiered at the Royalty Theatre Glasgow on 2 November 1909 also directed by Calderon 46 Marian Fell 1912 Charles Scribner s Sons First published English language translation of The Seagull in the United States performed at the Bandbox Theatre on Broadway by the Washington Square Players in 1916 47 Complete text from Project Gutenberg here 48 Fred Eisemann 1913 Poet Lore Appeared in Volume 26 Number 1 New Year s 1913 of Poet Lore magazine 49 50 Constance Garnett 1923 Bantam Books Performed on Broadway at the Civic Repertory Theatre in 1929 51 directed by Eva Le Gallienne Stark Young 1939 Charles Scribner s Sons Used in the 1938 Broadway production starring Uta Hagen as Nina 52 as well as the 1975 film directed by John Desmond 53 Elisaveta Fen 1954 Penguin Classics Along with Constance Garnett s translation this is one of the most widely read translations of The Seagull 54 David Magarshack 1956 Hill amp Wang Commissioned for the 1956 West End production at the Saville Theatre directed by Michael Macowan and starring Diana Wynyard Lyndon Brook and Hugh Williams 55 Moura Budberg 1968 Sidney Lumet Productions Commissioned and used for the 1968 film directed by Sidney Lumet 56 Tennessee Williams 1981 New Directions Publishing Williams free adaptation is titled The Notebook of Trigorin First produced by the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company in 1981 the United States premier occurred at the Cincinnati Playhouse in 1996 starring Lynn Redgrave as Madame Arkadina Williams was still revising the script when he died in 1983 57 Tania Alexander amp Charles Sturridge 1985 Applause Books Commissioned and used for the 1985 Oxford Playhouse production directed by Charles Sturridge and Vanessa Redgrave Michael Frayn 1988 Methuen Publishing Translated Nina s famous line I am a seagull to I am the seagull as in the seagull in Trigorin s story This was justified by Frayn in part because of the non existence of indefinite or definite articles in the Russian language 58 Pam Gems 1991 Nick Hern BooksDavid French 1992 Talonbooks Used in the 1992 Broadway production by the National Actors Theatre at the Lyceum Theatre directed by Marshall W Mason and featuring Tyne Daly Ethan Hawke Laura Linney and Jon Voight 59 Paul Schmidt 1997 Harper Perennial Used in the 2008 off Broadway production at the Classic Stage Company starring Dianne Wiest Alan Cumming and Kelli Garner 60 Tom Stoppard 1997 Faber and Faber Premiered at the Old Vic theatre in London on 28 April 1997 Its United States premiere in July 2001 in New York City drew crowds who sometimes waited 15 hours for tickets 61 Peter Gill 2000 Oberon BooksPeter Carson 2002 Penguin ClassicsChristopher Hampton 2007 Faber and Faber Used in the Royal Court Theatre s 2008 production of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre directed by Ian Rickson and featuring Peter Sarsgaard Kristin Scott Thomas Mackenzie Crook and Carey Mulligan 62 Benedict Andrews 2011 Currency Press Used in the 2011 production at Sydney s Belvoir St Theatre starring Judy Davis David Wenham Emily Barclay Anita Hegh Gareth Davies Dylan Young and Maeve Dermody adapted for an Australian setting with minor dialogue changes 63 64 Anya Reiss 2014 Premiered at the Southwark Playhouse 65 David Hare 2015 Faber and Faber Presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre in tandem with Hare s translations of Platonov and Ivanov 66 Adaptations editTheatre edit The American playwright Tennessee Williams adapted the play as The Notebook of Trigorin which premiered in 1981 That year Thomas Kilroy s adaptation The Seagull also premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London The Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor wrote an adaptation called His Greatness In 2004 American playwright Regina Taylor s African American adaptation Drowning Crow was performed on Broadway Emily Mann wrote and directed an adaptation called A Seagull in the Hamptons The play premiered at the McCarter Theatre May 2008 67 Libby Appel did a new version that premiered in 2011 at the Marin Theatre in Mill Valley using newly discovered material from Chekhov s original manuscripts In pre Revolutionary Russia plays underwent censorship from two sources the government censor and directors The removed passages were saved in the archives of Russia and unavailable till the fall of the Iron Curtain 68 In 2011 Benedict Andrews re imagined the work as being set in a modern Australian beach in his production of the play at Sydney s Belvoir Theatre which starred Judy Davis David Wenham and Maeve Darmody He did this to explore the ideas of liminal space and time In October 2011 it was announced that a contemporary Hamptons set film adaptation Relative Insanity will be directed by the acting coach Larry Moss starring David Duchovny Helen Hunt Maggie Grace and Joan Chen 69 70 needs update In 2013 a deconstruction of the play by Aaron Posner set in the modern day under the title Stupid Fucking Bird was premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D C it won the 2014 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical 71 and has been staged widely across American theatres A 2022 gender fluid adaptation of the Tom Stoppard version was completed by the Doris Place Players to great success in Los Angeles In 2022 Emilia Clarke starred in Anya Reiss adaption in Harold Pinter Theatre in London It was described as a unique 21st century modernisation 72 Thomas Bradshaw wrote a modern day adaptation set in New York s Hudson Valley entitled The Seagull Woodstock NY The play was produced Off Broadway by The New Group in 2023 and starred Parker Posey Nat Wolff Ato Essandoh and Hari Nef Film edit Sidney Lumet s 1968 film The Sea Gull used Moura Budberg s translation The play was also adapted as the Russian film The Seagull in 1972 The 2003 film La petite Lili from director Claude Miller starring Ludivine Sagnier as Nina renamed Lili updates Chekhov s play to contemporary France in the world of the cinema Christian Camargo directed a 2014 film adaptation of the play titled Days and Nights set in rural New England during the 1980s The film starred Camargo William Hurt Allison Janney Katie Holmes Mark Rylance and Juliet Rylance An American film titled The Seagull went into production in 2015 73 It was released on May 11 2018 by Sony Pictures Classics directed by Michael Mayer with a screenplay by Stephen Karam starring Annette Bening and Saoirse Ronan A contemporary Afrikaans language film adaptation directed by Christiaan Olwagen titled Die Seemeeu debuted at the Kyknet Silwerskermfees on 23 August 2018 Cintaine Schutte won the Best Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of Masha Opera edit The play was the basis for the 1974 opera The Seagull by Thomas Pasatieri to an English libretto by Kenward Elmslie Musical edit The 1987 musical Birds of Paradise by Winnie Holzman and David Evans is a metatheatrical adaptation both loosely following the original play and containing a musical version of the play as the Konstantin equivalent s play In 2015 the play was adapted into Songbird a country musical by Michael Kimmel and Lauren Pritchard Songbird sets its story in Nashville and centers around Tammy Trip a fading country star Tammy returns to the honky tonk where she got her start to help her estranged son launch his own music career The show was produced at 59E59 Theaters and featured Kate Baldwin and Erin Dilly It was recognized as a New York Times Critic s Pick 74 Ballet edit It was made into a ballet by John Neumeier with his Hamburg Ballet company in June 2002 This version re imagined the main characters as coming from the world of dance Arkadina became a famous prima ballerina Nina was a young dancer on the brink of her career Konstantin appeared as a revolutionary young choreographer and Trigorin as an older more conventional choreographer 75 An earlier ballet in two acts by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin was first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow in 1980 References editNotes Benedetti 1989 26 a b c Chekhov 1920 Letter to A F Koni 11 November 1896 Available online at Project Gutenberg Rudnitsky 1981 8 Chekhov 1920 Chekhov 1920 Letter to Suvorin 18 October 1896 Benedetti 1989 16 and Benedetti 1999 59 74 Elegantly coiffured clad in evening dress mournfully contemplating the middle distance with pencil and notepad suggests someone more intent on resurrecting the dead seagull in deathless prose than plotting the casual seduction of the ardent female by his side Worrall 1996 107 Benedetti 1999 73 and Benedetti 1989 25 Worrall 1996 109 and Braun 1981 62 63 Braun 1981 62 63 Benedetti 1999 79 For an English translation of Stanislavski s score see Balukhaty 1952 Braun 1981 62 and Benedetti 1999 79 81 Benedetti 1999 85 386 Quoted by Benedetti 1999 86 a b Benedetti 1999 86 Benedetti 1999 89 Benedetti 1999 89 90 and Worrall 1996 108 Benedetti 1999 90 Chekhov and the Art Theatre in Stanislavski s words were united in a common desire to achieve artistic simplicity and truth on the stage Allen 2001 11 Braun 1981 2 64 Da Gaivota Folha newspaper 22 December 2015 Romola Garai A woman on the edge of stardom The Independent London 15 March 2007 Archived from the original on June 14 2008 Retrieved 25 May 2010 The fall of a high flying bird by Nicholas de Jongh London Evening Standard 28 November 2007 Marquee value The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre Archived 2012 10 20 at the Wayback Machine by Matthew Blank Playbill 18 August 2008 Ludman Mark 8 February 2019 REVIEW The Seagull Satirikon Theatre Moscow Stage Russia British Theatre com Retrieved 26 May 2021 Seagull Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2012 Hughley Marty 5 March 2012 Oregon Shakespeare Festival reviews season opening shows hit their marks and in one case Marx The Oregonian Retrieved June 15 2012 Die seemeeu performance details Aardklop Retrieved 8 October 2014 Regent s Park Open Air Theatre 2015 Season Open Air Theatre Retrieved 6 November 2014 Cavendish Dominic The Seagull Open Air Theatre Regent s Park review terrific The Telegraph 26 June 2015 The Seagull Streetcar Crowsnest crowstheatre com Retrieved 2022 06 08 The Seagull The Toronto Theatre Database Retrieved 2022 06 08 David Kary 2015 03 23 The Rocks Pop Up Project The Seagull Review Sydney Arts Guide Retrieved 2017 07 06 The Seagull Theatre de Vidy 17 November 2015 Retrieved 3 December 2016 Sullivan Lindsey Jessica Chastain Led A Doll s House amp The Seagull with Emilia Clarke Postponed in London Broadway com 28 May 2020 Deen Sarah Emilia Clarke s play The Seagull suspended as London s West End shuts down over coronavirus pandemic Metro 17 March 2020 The Seagull review Emilia Clarke makes her West End debut WhatsOnStage Chekhov s The Seagull a new online version www atc co nz Five of the best plays to watch online in the coming days www scotsman com Servants of Art The New Yorker 2008 03 24 Retrieved 2021 03 14 In the play s opening moments Masha the beautiful Marjan Neshat walks onstage with a lovelorn Medvedenko Greg Keller in tow he asks her Why do you always wear black and she replies Because I m in mourning for my life Chekhov suggests that we spend far more time killing life than living it And the various ways in which we murder our own happiness through self absorption or by rejecting purehearted offers of love because we re taken in by glamour constitute the majority of the play s action Among other things The Seagull is a spectacle of waste Miles 1993 220 chapter Chekhov into English the case of The Seagull quote A dominant motif in the play is the recurrent Hamlet theme a b c Henry Peter March 2008 Chekhov in English PDF British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies 3 Archived from the original PDF on 13 September 2008 Retrieved 6 April 2009 Stoppard Tom August 2001 The Seagull Faber and Faber ISBN 978 0 571 19270 0 Byrne Terry 4 July 2008 For Seagull director dove into translation The Boston Globe Retrieved 6 April 2009 France Peter 24 February 2000 The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation Oxford University Press p 600 ISBN 978 0 19 818359 4 Tracy Robert Spring 1960 A Cexov Anniversary The Slavic and East European Journal 4 1 25 34 doi 10 2307 304054 JSTOR 304054 The Seagull 1916 production IBDB com Internet Broadway Database The Sea gull by Anton Checkov Gutenberg org Retrieved 2017 07 06 Sendich Munir 1985 ANTON CHEKHOV IN ENGLISH A Comprehensive Bibliography of Works About and By Him 1889 1984 Russian Language Journal Russkij yazyk 39 132 134 American Councils for International Education ACTR ACCELS 227 379 JSTOR 43668947 poetloremag May 22 2018 Did you know In 1913 Poet Lore published the first full English translation of Anton Chekhov s The Seagull Back then the playwright s name was transliterated as Tchekkof Catch the film adaptation in theaters now Tweet via Twitter Civic Repertory Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database The Seagull 1938 production IBDB com Internet Broadway Database The Seagull 1975 film IMDb com Internet Movie Database Kirsch Adam July 1997 Chekhov in American The Atlantic Retrieved 8 February 2009 Miles 1993 242 The Sea Gull 1968 film IMDb com Internet Movie Database Klein Alvin 28 January 2001 Theater Review Start With Chekhov Add Lots of Williams The New York Times Retrieved 22 March 2009 Callow Simon 24 May 2008 The play s the thing The Guardian London Retrieved 22 March 2009 The Seagull 1992 production IBDB com Internet Broadway Database Cino Maggie 8 March 2008 The Seagull nytheater com Archived from the original on 22 May 2008 Retrieved 6 January 2009 Press Release CSC Studio Series Features Anton Chekhov s The Seagull in New Stoppard Translation Cinstages com 19 December 2008 Archived from the original on 21 November 2010 Retrieved 22 March 2009 The Seagull 2008 production IBDB com Internet Broadway Database The Seagull Archived from the original on 2011 06 18 Retrieved 2011 06 17 The Seagull as per Benedict Andrew s vision at Belvoir Theatre Miss Feathers Archived from the original on 2011 06 15 Retrieved 2011 06 17 Brennan Clare 1 March 2014 The Seagull review Anya Reiss s thrilling frustrating take on Chekhov The Guardian Holly Williams 2015 10 04 Platonov Ivanov and The Seagull David Hare is determined to prove young Chekhov is more glorious than old Chekhov The Independent Archived from the original on 2022 06 18 Retrieved 2017 07 06 McCarter Theatre Center Mccarter org Retrieved 2017 07 06 MTC Dramapedia Overview Seagull Archived from the original on 2010 12 08 Retrieved 2011 02 22 David Duchovny to star in film adaptation of Chekhov s The Seagull by Matt Trueman The Guardian 18 October 2011 Relative Insanity IMDb com Internet Movie Database Helen Hayes Awards The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical Abouttheartists com 2013 11 10 Retrieved 2017 07 06 The Seagull Official Box Office Harold Pinter Theatre www haroldpintertheatre co uk Retrieved 2022 09 03 Daniels Nia June 30 2015 Principal photography underway on The Seagull kftv com Retrieved June 30 2015 Isherwood Charles 28 October 2015 Review Songbird a Honky Tonk Take on Chekhov New York Times Retrieved 9 March 2021 The Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier Archived from the original on 2011 06 25 Retrieved 2015 11 23 Sources Allen David 2001 Performing Chekhov London Routledge ISBN 0 415 18935 7 Balukhaty Sergei Dimitrievich ed 1952 The Seagull Produced by Stanislavsky Trans David Magarshack London Denis Dobson New York Theatre Arts Books Benedetti Jean 1989 Stanislavski An Introduction Revised edition Original edition published in 1982 London Methuen ISBN 0 413 50030 6 Benedetti Jean 1999 Stanislavski His Life and Art Revised edition Original edition published in 1988 London Methuen ISBN 0 413 52520 1 Braun Edward 1981 Stanislavsky and Chekhov The Director and the Stage From Naturalism to Grotowski London Methuen p 59 76 ISBN 0 413 46300 1 Chekhov Anton 1920 Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with Biographical Sketch Trans Constance Garnett New York Macmillan Full text available online at Gutenberg Gilman Richard 1997 Chekhov s Plays An Opening into Eternity New York Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 07256 2 Miles Patrick 1993 Chekhov on the British Stage London Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 38467 2 Rudnitsky Konstantin 1981 Meyerhold the Director Trans George Petrov Ed Sydney Schultze Revised translation of Rezhisser Meierkhol d Moscow Academy of Sciences 1969 ISBN 0 88233 313 5 Worrall Nick 1996 The Moscow Art Theatre Theatre Production Studies ser London and NY Routledge ISBN 0 415 05598 9 External links edit nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article The Seagull translated by Marian Fell nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Seagull The Sea Gull at Project Gutenberg The Seagull at the Internet Broadway Database nbsp Full text of The Seagull in the original Russian Cast List of 2007 8 RSC Production nbsp The Seagull public domain audiobook at LibriVox The 120th Anniversary of Chekhov s The Seagull Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Seagull amp oldid 1210405632, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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