The Seagull

“Ah look…a stage, a curtain, framing what? Reality? Or just the infinite nothingness…”

The first of Chekhov’s four major plays, The Seagull stages the personal and artistic conflicts of an estate tucked away in the ever inspiring, but equally dull countryside. The characters fight to claim ownership of power, of creative genius and of each other. In true Checkhov style the most dramatic events occur offstage leaving the audience with complex characters, and their constant attempts to grin and bear the life they find themselves living.

Living on his uncle’s estate with his famous actress mother, and her new boyfriend the famous genius Boris Trigorin, Kostya is desperate to prove his worth in his mother’s world. His leading lady, Nina, begins to turn her affections towards Trigorin as well and suddenly Kostya’s whole world is spinning. Seemingly at the hands of the two women he loves most.

Working from an adaptation by Tim Maddock, who directs the piece, the cast stage a contemporary angle on Chekhov’s original. Working with live feed and projection, this Seagull looks at the destructive tendencies of our society, diving into climate change, incels, intergenerational politics and some good old fashioned Oedipal relations.

The Seagull is a comedy about failure and the creative obsession. As graduating students about to take their first steps into the theatre industry, Chekhov’s play about the tortured artist and his demand for a new theatre seems appropriate for the lives they too have found themselves living.

Director, Tim Maddock was a founding member of the Red Shed Theatre Company and later directed for Brink Productions, notably co-directing THE ECSTATIC BIBLE with Howard Barker and the Wrestling School for the Adelaide Festival 2000. Tim has worked as a director, designer and actor for theatre. Tim is currently studying for his doctorate (DCA) focusing on the centrality of scenography in his body of work and the development and evolution of his aesthetic approach to theatre.

Please be advised this production includes explicit language, adult themes, and use of haze.