THE SEAGULL

Wed 29 April - Sat 2 May 1992
Northampton College Arts Studio, Booth Lane, Northampton

Photo gallery

Notes on the play
From the programme

After Chekhov had finished The Seagull and read it through, he wrote to his friend Souvorin: “l am absolutely not a dramatist”.

This verdict on himself must have been reinforced by the audience’s opinion of the play at its first production in St. Petersburg; by the opening of the third act the hissing had become general and deafening. One reviewer said of the play that it was “such a dizzying flop, such a stunning fiasco”.

Two years later, Stanislavsky revived the play for the newly founded Moscow Arts Theatre. He wrote an account of this first night. “In the house the success was colossal; on stage it was a second Easter. Everyone kissed everyone else, not excluding strangers who came bursting backstage. Someone went into hysterics. Many people, myself amongst them, danced a wild dance for joy and excitement."

Stanislavsky himself played the author, Trigorin, and Olga Knipper, soon to marry Chekhov, was Arkadina. The playwright himself was 800 miles away in the Crimea nursing the consumption that was to kill him three years later.

The translation of The Seagull used in this Masque production is by Michael Frayn who, like Chekhov, was a journalist for many years. As well as translating all the major Chekhov plays and many of his lesser works Frayn has an impressive list of West End successes to his credit including Noises Off and Alphabetical Order.