Playreaders Theater
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Wed–Thu, June 17–18, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
20 pesos

Humor and pathos on Sorin’s country estate
By Fran Rowe

Anton Chekhov Playreaders of San Miguel present The Seagull, one of Anton Chekhov’s four major plays. During his brief 44-year lifespan, Anton Chekhov was a doctor, humanitarian and writer. He wrote over 4,000 letters, 500 short stories, 12 short plays and 7 full-length plays. The last four, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, are considered the “major” plays and, until his dying day, Chekhov insisted they were comedies.

The public, however, thinks otherwise and the term “Chekhovian character” has come to signify the moody, introspective character that fills the stages of our modern theater. In fact, it was Stanislavski, the director/actor of the Moscow Art Theater, who articulated the submerged life in the text—the subtext—of Chekhov’s characters. The Moscow Art Theater produced the canon of the four major works to roaring popular success in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

As it evolved, “subtext,” or the idea that characters often feel and think things not expressed in the lines they speak, dialogue punctuated by pauses and single-word replies, later became part of the “method acting” technique taught in Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio.

The Seagull has a play within a play, a series of unrequited loves, personal confessions and professions of personal satisfaction and disillusionment—all of which are rich in humor and pathos. These are “real-life” people living in the 1890s and visiting the country estate of Sorin. The “real-life” play readers are Chris Davis as Sorin, Seth Sharp as Treplev, Narissa Ferrar as Arkadina, John Wharton as Trigorin, Crystal Calderoni as Nina, Dennis Pipes as Dr. Dorn, Clara Dunham as Masha, Henry Vermillion as Medvedenko, Britt Zaist as Polina, Tom Frazee as Shamraev, and Norman Araiza as Yakov. Norman also acts as stage manager. Irving Kohn executes lights and sounds, and Fran Rowe Robbins directs.

The Seagull is a masterpiece. Don’t miss it! The doors of St. Paul’s Parish Hall open at 7pm, and the play begins at 7:30pm (or earlier if the house fills).