{"id":512781,"date":"2025-10-19T21:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/512781\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T21:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:16:11","slug":"review-tragicomic-triumph-delivered-in-this-chekhov-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/512781\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Tragicomic triumph delivered in this Chekhov classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Brining is well known to Scottish theatre audiences, having been director of TAG theatre company in Glasgow and co-director, then director at Dundee<\/a> Rep earlier in his career.\n<\/p>\n

\n Chekhov\u2019s opus is an excellent choice, enjoying, as it does, a deservedly elevated place in the repertoire of global theatre. The play had its world premiere in St Petersburg in 1896, where it was received indifferently.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\n<\/p>\n

\n Its first success came at the Moscow Art Theatre<\/a> two years later, where it was directed by none other than Konstantin Stanislavsky. The Moscow production starred the great, ill-fated theatre-maker Vsevolod Meyerhold (in the role of Konstantin, tortured son of the famous actress Irina Arkadina) and Stanislavsky himself (as Arkadina\u2019s younger lover, the writer Trigorin).\n<\/p>\n

\n The play has attracted illustrious actors ever since. For instance, the great Irish thespian Fiona Shaw gave an unforgettable performance as Arkadina during the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Brining continues the tradition of stellar casting of The Seagull with a production that positively bristles with top-notch acting talent. Caroline Quentin leads an exceptional ensemble in the role of Arkadina.\n<\/p>\n

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\n She is joined in a uniformly impressive cast by such acclaimed actors as John Bett (in the role of the disappointed and plaintive landowner Sorin) and Forbes Masson (as the bleakly witty GP Dr Dorn). The ensemble captures both the universality and the very particular, premonitory aspect of Chekhov\u2019s play (which is performed here in a crisp and expressive adaptation by Mike Poulton).\n<\/p>\n

\n Set on Arkadina\u2019s family estate during two visits by the prima donna, the play \u2013 typically of Chekhov\u2019s oeuvre \u2013 paints a vivid picture of the decline of the Russian landowning class in the late 19th century. Bleakly comic and agonisingly tragic, the drama seems almost to presage the revolutions that (in 1905) challenged, then (in 1917) overthrew the brutal and decaying order of Czarism.\n<\/p>\n

\n However, there is \u2013 in the character\u2019s existential boredom, their sense of unfulfilled potential, their affairs and unrequited loves \u2013 a darkly humorous observation of the absurdity of the human condition. In that sense, Chekhov might be considered a forerunner to the great existentialist dramatist of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett.\n<\/p>\n

\n The piece is performed on a fine, maximalist set (designed impressively by Colin Richmond and lit effectively by Lizzie Powell) that evokes the corrosion of the landed class. Quentin plays Arkadina in her full, grimly humorous grotesquery.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Egotistical, vain and spectacularly insensitive (especially towards her anguished son Konstantin), Arkadina also carries an underlying vulnerability and trepidation. Quentin captures this in a performance that is appropriately grandiloquent, yet affectingly nuanced.\n<\/p>\n

\n Lorn Macdonald\u2019s soul-sick Konstantin and Tallulah Grieve\u2019s sardonically bitter Masha (heavy-drinking daughter of estate manager Shamrayev) also shine in Brining\u2019s classy, beautifully balanced production.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Seagull is in theatres until November 1. Tickets can be purchased here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brining is well known to Scottish theatre audiences, having been director of TAG theatre company in Glasgow and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-512781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115402911519223985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}