And then the dead bird.
The feathered chicken is dead! Suicide! Devastation! Unhappy marriages! Unrequited love! Festering resentment! “The Seagull” may not seem like the kind of play you can laugh at, but Chekhov himself considers it a comedy. Most works consider it a tragedy (especially after the famous Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski reinterpreted it as such in one of its early works).
Collins chooses both, acting comedy in the first half and turning to daring tragedy in the second half. So Masha is not a great man chasing a bored artist but a mopey girl in knee-high compression stockings who drags herself across the stage while Semyon sadly runs after her. Konstantin is not a misunderstood virtuoso but an overly realist hipster of an artist who has serious problems with his mother. In the final scene of the first act, Gene, as he repeatedly comforts the two suffering characters, humorously declares: “You are so sad! You are all very upset! “
And yet, despite its playful humor and antics, the show often goes into a lull as it mostly plays a parrot version of Chekhov’s work.
It wasn’t until the second act that the show’s forgettable change occurred. The actors froze, posing in near-suffocating silence for several minutes. The scene darkened and fog hung over the top of the stage. None of the actors speak, but we hear them say their lines in voiceovers. We see Nina lounging on a chair in the corner, Irina sitting in a commanding position front and center, arms outstretched to the sides to support the back of the chair, legs crossed in front of her, and Ilya leaning against a tree column, head drooping to one side. Haunting effect when paired with monstrous voices. Instead of trying to seamlessly blend elements of dark humor and wretchedness, the production draws attention to the individual.
Chekhov’s play shows the ability to dismantle and supervise comic books. Take postmodern by Aaron Posner remix, “Stupid _______ bird,” which actually manages to eliminate the balancing act faced by “Seagull” of Elevator Repair Service, separating the difference between the serious copy of the text (or at least parts of the text) copies) and disrespectful submissions of the ideas, themes, and practices of popularizing the beloved work. Given Posner’s haughty, ambitious show, the play manages it a little better through an almost Spartan commitment to its pretentiousness, from script to stage.
“Seagull” is more lenient in implementing its ideas, although it would benefit from a greater commitment to experimental aspirations and to make artistic insights clearer. And it can further blur the line between performance and reality like in the opening scene, allowing actors to speak more freely, improvise, share parts of themselves even as they live in character. mine.
This product can make the audience think about art, experimentation and truth but cannot see through those thoughts. In the play, Konstantin declares that we need new forms. This production process may have inadvertently provided the answer: Only if the artist does as he pleases.
Gulls
Through July 31 at NYU Skirball, Manhattan; nyuskirball.org. Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes.
