The Seagull

19 June 2015 - 11 July 2015

By Anton Chekhov
In a new adaptation by Torben Betts

Only love brings happiness into this earth, the poetical love of youth, sweeping away the sorrows of the world.

As guests assemble at a country house for the staging of an avant-garde open air play, artistic temperaments ignite a more entertaining drama behind the scenes, with romantic jealousies, self-doubt and the ruthless pursuit of happiness confusing lives, loves and literature.

Directed by Matthew Dunster and featuring double Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee, The Seagull was the first of Chekhov’s great works and is celebrated as one of the most important plays of the nineteenth century.

Evening Standard

"I ADORED IT and thought it exactly what the currently crest-of-a-wave Open Air Theatre should be putting on: a lively new version of a classic.
It looks EXQUISITE...there’s a punchy energy and strong through-line of thought, perfectly mirrored by Torben Bett’s earthy new adaptation.
THIS IS A HIGH-FLYING SEAGULL"

Daily Telegraph

"TERRIFIC Matthew Dunster's superbly acted revival achieves the near impossible: it jolts its audience awake with its dream-like action.
I've never heard laughter like it, indoors or out...ripples of amusement turning into cascades of merriment.
As the evening darkens...the soulful genius of Chekhov's drama takes glorious wing. BRAVO"

The Times

"This Seagull is BEAUTIFULLY SITUATED. A huge tilted mirror…lends the action a balletic, almost cinematic, grace.

Its essential emotional truthfulness rings out as loudly as its rueful laughter.

Janie Dee’s Arkadina is SPARKLING and absurd as she hilariously parades her charms"

Sunday Times

"Some productions are setbound - this is an instance of one FREED AND SET SOARING by its location and design...the atmosphere of this Seagull alters and intensifies with the setting sun"

Time Out

"A FRESH, FREE-FLYING NEW ADAPTATION
Though the costume is nineteenth century, both the edgy delivery of dialogue and the movement instantly feels very twenty-first century"

Mail on Sunday

"Torben Betts’s salty, peppery, idiomatic new adaptation intriguingly sharpens and expands the play’s references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and ups the comedy as well as the tragedy"
"JANIE DEE IS A DELIGHT"

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