LEV DODIN / MALY TEATR |
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THE SEAGULL |
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“Men, lions, eagles, partridges, horned deer, geese, spiders, silent fishes of the deep, starfishes and creatures unseen to the eye -- in short, all living things, all living things, having completed their mournful cycle, have been snuffed out. For thousands of years the earth has borne no living thing, and this poor moon now lights its lamp in vain. The cranes no longer cry in the meadows, no longer are May beetles heard humming in the groves of lime trees. It is cold, cold, cold. . . It is deserted, deserted, deserted . . . It is terrifying, terrifying, terrifying . . .”
Anton Chekov (excerpt from The Seagull) The Seagull is perhaps the best known of all the works of Anton Chekov. This production, directed by Lev Dodin, marks his third staging of a Chekov play (following A Play Without a Title based on Chekov’s early work Platonov, and The Cherry Orchard). As always when working with classical texts, the words are the heart of Dodin’s work. This production, while incorporating many of the stunning visual elements seen in his earlier works, is most striking in that the action is reduced to a minimum, casting the emphasis on the text. The cast, members of the Maly Teatr of which Dodin is the artistic director, find a lightness of touch and sense of humor that Chekov always felt was vital to his work. |
The stage is made of wooden slat laid over a metal grid that in some places shows through. A part of the front section is covered with grass, and some benches create a playing space between the main stage and the audience. At the beginning this is what the audience sees, and in the background a glass and metal hemisphere falling into ruin, creating a backdrop for Treplev’s experimental play. Later, the floor of the main stage opens to reveal a pool of water – a visual theme that was also seen in The Play Without a Name (Platonov), and has been a recurrent image throughout the career of Dodin.
This impressive setting is complemented with very simple, neutral costumes – the idea of strict period is let go in favor of a more universal style. There is also an upper level with two ramps, one on either side of the stage, leading down to the main stage. Several times Nina appears on a bicycle, and sweeps down one ramp and up the other to disappear on the other side. Bicycles return at other points during the piece as a sort of recurring theme – of flight, of death, of escape. |
PRODUCTION DATES
Moscow, Russia International Theatre Olympics 9 June 2001 St-Petersburg, Russia 16 September 2001 Palermo, Italy Teatro Santa Cecilia 4 – 6 October 2001 |
