Theatre review: The Seagull at the Chichester Festival Theatre
GIVEN that Anton Chekhov died of TB at a relatively youthful 44, Chichester’s Young Chekhov season seems a rather odd title.
The Seagull is the work of a fully mature dramatist
Perhaps Early Chekhov would have been more appropriate. Whatever, following the initial dramatic experiments of what was eventually to become Platonov and then Ivanov, The Seagull is the work of a fully mature dramatist.
Chekhov achieves the difficult feat of writing about pretentious people without actually being pretentious.
Chekhov achieves the feat of writing about pretentious people without actually being pretentious
Every character from the ageing stage diva Irina Arkadina (played to the hilt by Anna “Duckface” Chancellor) to her wannabe writer son Konstantin (Joshua James) are victims of their own aspirational vanity.
Throw in an ageing paterfamilias Sorin (Peter Egan) bewailing his lifelong failings, a philandering doctor, Dorn (Adrian Lukis) and a cynical writer Trigorin (Samuel West) and you have a recipe for tragedy that slinks through the play rather than hurtles with Shakespearean momentum.
Every character are victims of their own aspirational vanity
Jonathan Kent’s production of David Hare’s vibrant new version is without doubt elegantly mounted. Kent is a safe pair of hands; too safe, perhaps, as there is nothing here to indicate the shock of the new that the first productions must have generated.
The Seagull at the Chichester Festival Theatre, until November 14. Tickets: 01243 781312 ;cft.org.uk.