The Seagull

I went to see this production of THE SEAGULL full of trepidation. In my experience The Brits have never really been very good at Chekhov often presenting his plays as if they were a strange combination of drawing room comedy and melodrama. Well my feeling about Brits doing Chekhov has changed. I really enjoyed the production of Seagull that is playing in rotating rep with KING LEAR. One of the advantages of doing playwrights translated from another language is that the translation can become part of the interpretation. Trevor Nunn commissioned a literal translation of the text then reworked it for this world tour. The result is both very funny and maintains the basic innocence (or should I say the characters total inability to understand let alone handle their lives) and a deep melancholy about the futility of it all.  With that futility comes a lot of great laughs. There are still vestiges of the drawing room but when up against it, as when Arkadina, played brilliantly by Frances Barber as if the spotlight could go out on her any moment, literally throws herself at her writer-lover Trigorin, nicely played by Gerald Kyd. After a series of manipulations she bellows at him and demands he stay with her. There are some nice turns by Melonie Jessop as Polina, Jonathan as Dorn a doctor, The central characters of Tregorin, Arkadina’s son who yearns for her attention, and his love interest Nina, played hauntingly by Romola Garai, are played mainly for tragedy and I was quite moved by their actions. On the periphery of all this is the old man Sorin whose life has passed him by but seems content just to sit in a chair a smoke his pipe. He is also the one who is the compassionate eye for the audience. He is amused and then terribly upset by the pain of the other characters. Sorin is winningly played by none other than Ian McKellen. Known for his tendency to upstage everyone else with histrionics, he partakes in the proceedings like a supporting player and even takes a bow towards the middle of the curtain call. Nevertheless you can’t take your eyes off him and he becomes our host for the proceedings. William Gaunt who plays Gloucester in LEAR alternates in the role.  You can’t get a ticket but maybe this will come out on DVD later on.

ROYCE HALL UCLA through Oct 28th