An unflinching examination of love in all its many hues, from the sublime to the unbearable.
Rating
Excellent
In a letter to his publisher, Chekhov described The Seagull as “…little action, five tons of love.” And Mike Poulton’s adaptation of this classic very much delivers the love, often underscoring its painful aspects, but never without sympathy, while keeping the pace up. James Brining’s first production as Artistic Director of the Lyceum offers an unflinching examination of love in its many hues, from the sublime to the unbearable
Caroline Quentin is exquisite as Irina Arkadina, grande dame of the stage, delighting us with overwrought gestural poses demonstrating her successes as Juliet and Ophelia, while always maintaining her character’s inner vulnerability. Arkadina cannot bear to share the spotlight, even for a single moment. Bad luck for her avant-garde playwright son Konstantin (Lorn Macdonald), desperate to innovate with theatrical form and create something entirely his own. His efforts go spectacularly awry, driving a wedge between him and beloved neighbour Nina (Harmony Rose-Bremner): although the bit where he shoots a seagull and tells her this is how he plans to kill himself is probably also a bit off-putting. Meanwhile, Nina’s head is turned by Arkadina’s celebrity author lover Tregorin (Dyfan Dwyfor), while estate manager’s daughter Masha (Tallulah Greive) chases after Konstantin and schoolmaster Medvendenko (Michael Dylan) chases after Masha in a brittle conga line of broken hearts. Dr Dorn (Forbes Masson) is pursued by Masha’s mother Polina (Irene Allan) as he pines after Arkadina, just for good measure.
A major tone shift happens between the two acts, with Konstanin and Nina displaying the biggest outward changes in character. Macdonald and Rose-Bremner effect these gear shifts with agility and grace. Nina’s wide-eyed fascination with Tregorin’s writerly celebrity in the first half resonates with contemporary themes of influencers and the role of media; Rose-Bremner delivers this without any tempting winks at modernity, underlining how constant are our human foibles despite distances of time, culture, and language. Greive is deliciously gothic as Masha, swanning about in all black, drinking and taking too much snuff while making devastating pronouncements about the inescapability of human misery: her plan for getting over Konstantin is to marry Medvendenko (given just the right measure of pitiable underdog by Dylan) “because then I will have so many new problems I will forget that one!”
The finale is delivered with quiet devastation – perhaps too quiet. The play’s text ends with a sudden shock which is not revealed to all the characters, but the audience could use another breath, another moment before the lights come up for the fact of it to land and to let imagination unfold the ripples which will emanate.
Stage, lighting and sound design are a true delight, constricting with each act as the emotional tension becomes increasingly compressed. A particular highlight is the lakeside theatre as the moon rises through the rushes.
Brining’s choice of this play to launch his tenure, pausing on the threshold of a new artistic endeavour, resonates with a central tension within the text: the counterpoint between classical, critically acclaimed theatre, as represented by Arkadina, and the fresh naturalism championed by her son Konstantin. “This is so hard!” roars Konstantin at a pivotal moment, lamenting the impossibility of truly creating a new form of theatre: however much we might wish to revolutionise, art is in constant conversation with its context; we are never free of what came before. And yet, should that stop us? As Tregorin says of Konstantin’s attempts to innovate, “I always thought there was room for everybody.” These explorations perhaps also speak to how Brining intends to set his Artistic Director compass at the Lyceum – if so, there is much to look forward to.
Playwright: Anton Chekhov
Adaptation: Mike Poulton
Director: James Brining
Set Designer: Colin Richmond
Co-Set Designer: Anna Kelsey
Costume Designer: Madeleine Boyd
Associate Costume Designer: Anna Kelsey
Lighting Designer: Lizzie Powell
Sound Designer & Composer: Michael John McCarthy
Movement & Intimacy Director: EJ Boyle
The Seagull plays at Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh until Saturday 1 November.
