The Seagull
It's been a l-o-n-g week. And yesterday was an even longer day. I wanted to just lie in bed — But it was the opening night for The Seagull at Theatre Novi Most, so off we went. And I am SO glad we did.
I'm pretty good at my Chekhov (thanks to Tufts for that), and I especially know The Seagull very well. It's a play where, though I cannot recite every line, I certainly know each one, and have a great feeling of familiarity when I hear them. With this incredible cast, to some extent it was like coming home.
But this time it was also extremely different. I came to know The Seagull when I was younger, when Konstantin and Nina seemed like the real characters to me, when the story was the creation of the new and its conflict with the old.
And now — well, now I am Arkadina, and I have a new sense of sympathy for Masha and even Medvedenko and Sorin, characters I had often almost written off before. In fact, I now found myself irritated with Nina and Konstantin (with their characters, not the actors, who were fantastic). How things change!
I had also not paid much attention to the importance of the entire cast and their relationship before, and that was very clear and important last night.
A fantastic show.
If you have not seen The Seagull before, this is the perfect version to see. If you think you know it well and don't need to see it again, this is the one that will prove you wrong. Don't miss it.
I'm pretty good at my Chekhov (thanks to Tufts for that), and I especially know The Seagull very well. It's a play where, though I cannot recite every line, I certainly know each one, and have a great feeling of familiarity when I hear them. With this incredible cast, to some extent it was like coming home.
But this time it was also extremely different. I came to know The Seagull when I was younger, when Konstantin and Nina seemed like the real characters to me, when the story was the creation of the new and its conflict with the old.
And now — well, now I am Arkadina, and I have a new sense of sympathy for Masha and even Medvedenko and Sorin, characters I had often almost written off before. In fact, I now found myself irritated with Nina and Konstantin (with their characters, not the actors, who were fantastic). How things change!
I had also not paid much attention to the importance of the entire cast and their relationship before, and that was very clear and important last night.
A fantastic show.
If you have not seen The Seagull before, this is the perfect version to see. If you think you know it well and don't need to see it again, this is the one that will prove you wrong. Don't miss it.
Comments