Reviewed by Judy Richter
Marin Theatre Company has scored something of an
artistic coup by staging the world premiere of Libby Appel's new version of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull." Commissioned by the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival,
where Appel was artistic director from 1995-2007. this new version comes from a
literal translation by Allison Horsley and restores passages that were cut by Russian
censors or stage directors.
The plot and setting
remain the same, however. The action takes place on a country estate outside
Kiev during the late 1890s. The plot features several romantic triangles,
unrequited love and thwarted dreams. The story begins as Kostya (John Tufts) has written a short play and
has invited family and friends to see a preview starring his beloved Nina (Christine
Albright), a
neighbor.
The audience includes
Kostya's uncle, Pyotr Sorin (Richard Farrell), who owns the estate; and
Kostya's mother, Irina (Tess Malis Kincaid), a famous actress who is Pyotr's sister. Also in
the audience is Irina's young lover, Boris Trigorin (Craig Marker), a famous, prolific writer;
Yevgenii Dorn (Howard Swain), a local doctor; Ilya Shamrayev (Michael Ray Wisely), the estate's manager; Polina (Julia
Brothers), his
wife; Masha (Liz Sklar), their morose daughter; and Semyon Medvedenko (Peter Ruocco), a schoolteacher.
Kostya's relationship
with his self-centered mother is complicated. Complications involving other
characters also are seen. For example, Semyon loves Masha, who loves Kostya,
who loves Nina, who falls in love with Trigorin. Polina loves the doctor. Most of
them make the wrong choices or become so mired in inertia that they can't
extricate themselves. Only the doctor and Sorin seem to have come to terms with
and accepted their circumstances. The others, except for the oblivious Ilya,
tend to do a lot of agonizing.
The cast is excellent. A
special nod goes to the chemistry between Tufts' Kostya and Albright's Nina,
perhaps stemming from their OSF experience. For the most part, MTC artistic
director Jasson Minadakis paces the action well. Still, the production runs nearly
three hours. The lighting is by Joan Arhelger with costumes by Antonia
Ford-Roberts,
and music and sound by Chris Houston. Robert Mark Morgan's set features stout birch
trunks, starting with a relative few for the outdoors in the first act and adding
more in subsequent acts. By the final act, the combination of these timbers and
grid-like windows makes the interior of the house resemble a prison.
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