The Seagull at Huntington Theatre Co.

Seagulls Are Everywhere

by Talman Fortune

The Seagull was written by the Russian playwright Anton Chekov and premiered in Russia in 1896. This has however been adapted and translated many times until today, where it is being performed by the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston directed by Maria Aitken. The Seagull is about the relationships between all the people surrounding the main character Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina (Kate Burton), a famous actress. The characters have many complicated emotions and relationships that cause drama to play out between them. The main relationship of the plot is between Arkadina and her son Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplyov (Morgan Ritchie). Arkadina is not supportive of her son’s attempts at writing and he disapproves of her extremely narcissistic attitude towards life. The plot branches off from this though and extends to almost every character having a complex relationship with every other character.

            The incredible set provided by set designer Ralph Funicello provided a realistic setting that immersed the characters and created a realistic setting for the play. There are two acts in the play, each with a different setting that changes once throughout the act. The first act is set in outside in the backyard of Arkadina’s brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin’s estate. The most amazing of these sets though was the parlor of the estate introduced in the second act. The first part of which was set one week after the events of the first act but then skips two years to where the parlor is now the office of Konstatin who has now accomplished his goal of becoming a professional writer. This set of the house had amazing details with everything from real candles to the wallpaper looking old and worn down. Although the set was beautiful, the set changes during each act seemed to take a long time and didn’t look smooth. The concept of having the set changed performed by the servants of the family would have been interesting and kept the immersion of the setting and play, if it was performed correctly. The way this version of The Seagull did this seemed unnatural and left me bored while waiting for the next scene to start.

            Most of the acting in The Seagull was impressing by most performers like Kate Burton playing Arkadina and Ted Koch as her lover and famous writer Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin. Other actors however paled in comparison to them and created a barrier between them. The difference in this quality of acting caused a lack of chemistry between some characters and awkwardness in the scenes between them. Other than these problems with set and acting the Huntington Theatre Company provided a very entertaining and well done version of Chekov’s The Seagull.