The Bane of The Seagull

I have been to outdoor theatre venues before, symphonies and operas, never for plays. It was an interesting production of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull. My exposure to Chekhov’s literature has been minimal. I have been casted in one of his other plays, The Cherry Orchard. From my exposure before seeing Seagull, I have found that Chekhov isn’t one of my favorites. It’s difficult to produce his plays. At face value they appear as tragedies with funny moments highlighted with over the top dialogue and characters. In fact, his plays were never written to be tragedies, but comedies.

I was quite surprised with this production. The outdoor venue played very well with the rural setting. More importantly it was funny. I finally saw a Chekhov that was funny. Unfortunately, this production could be caricaturized like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly except with: The Actors, The Director, and The Sound Designers (in said order). The director did very well creating a picturesque experience. Matthew Dunster, the Director, knew what he wanted from the cast and the cast, as a whole knew how to achieve their goals with his directions. The production had some very interesting takes on design. All of was perfect except the BLOODY Sound Designer! Forget about the outside being distracting (the setting of the play was more less outside), this designer was the distraction. Everything would be going perfect except the designer’s soundtrack would disrupt the scene. The designer would use a loud and long bass sound in selected moment. I have no idea why. First I thought it was supposed to show conflict, and then I guessed it was foreshadowing actions in the story arch, and then the same track was used for scene transitions. I have no clue why this designer chose this track. I am quite soured about that one little facet of the production. With out it or if other track where selected like a deep cello solo would have been great. It is unfortunate that one detail could derail an entire performance.  I guess you win some and you lose some.