The Seagull

The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be Anton Chekhov's four major plays. It centers on the romantic and artistic conflicts between four theatrical characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading leading lady Irina Arkadina, her son the experimental playwright Konstantin Treplyov, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin.

Related Topics:
Anton Chekhov's - Play - Playwright

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Like the rest of Chekhov's full-length plays, The Seagull relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully developed characters. In opposition to much of the melodramatic theater of the 19th century, lurid actions (such as Treplyov's suicide attempts) are kept offstage. Characters tend to speak in ways that skirt around issues rather than addressing them directly, a concept known as subtext.

Related Topics:
Melodrama - 19th century - Suicide - Subtext

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The play has a strong intertextual relationship with Shakespeare's Hamlet. Arkadina and Treplyov quote lines from it before the play-within-a-play in the first act (and the play-within-a-play device is itself used in Hamlet). There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well. For instance, Treplyov seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from Uncle Claudius.

Related Topics:
Intertextual - Shakespeare's - Hamlet

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The opening night of the first production was a famous failure, despite astonishing play by Vera Komissarzhevskaya as Nina. Chekhov supposedly walked out in the middle of the performance, much as Treplyov walks out on the performance of his play-within-a-play. This failure most likely occurred because the director had never dealt with a play as subtle and un-melodramatic as Chekhov's, and was unsure of how to stage it. However, when Konstantin Stanislavski directed it in a later production for the Moscow Art Theater, the play was a resounding success.

Related Topics:
Vera Komissarzhevskaya - Konstantin Stanislavski - Moscow Art Theater

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