Seagull (NHB Classic Plays)

A striking version of Chekhov's classic play by Charlotte Pyke, John Kerr and Joseph Blatchley, restoring to the play the cuts demanded by the Russian censor in 1896. In nineteenth-century rural Russia, an anxious young writer prepares the first performance of his new play for the two women in his life. The consequences are devastating, with everybody in love with the wrong person, and death hovering close by. Through both comedy and tragedy, Seagull explores lives that are precariously balanced between love and indifference, success and failure, hope and despair. This version of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull was first performed at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2011. 'absorbingly vibrant - a Seagull that soars.' - The Times 'wonderfully nimble... the play feels fresh and vital... full of warmth and wit' - Stage 'new translation brings an immediacy and a vibrancy to the play that does it a world of good' - Whatsonstage.com

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), a physician by training, is now considered the most notable 20th-century Russian dramatist. His major plays, all staged by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre, helped establish psychological realism in European theatre.