“The Seagull”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - May 2011

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a Chekhov kinda girl. I get him. He makes me laugh. And he is one of those writers who you either get or you don’t get. If you are not a Chekhov kinda girl or guy, then just stay home. But if you are, you will want to see The Seagull at Main Street Stage.

This is not your grandparents’ Seagull. Director Frank LaFrazia has chosen a very modern translation by Paul Schmidt, and not only has he added regional references to make it clear that the action takes place in Berkshire County, but I suspect he has tweaked the language to make it even more up to the minute. And it works. This is a tale of heavy-hitting artistic types “slumming it” in the boondocks for the summer. I could just see them basking on the shores of the Stockbridge Bowl, contemplating a spa day at Kripalu, and reminiscing about this production or that at “the Theatre Festival.” It helps that either Schmidt or LaFrazia has anglicized the character names so that Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin becomes Peter Nicholson, and Nina and Konstantine lose their patronymics and last names altogether.

Lest purists amongst my readership are now prostrate with palpitations, crying for the ministries of Dr. Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn (Eugene Dorn here), or even Dr. Chekhov himself, let me assure you that these are very recognizably Chekhov’s characters and his play, only the time and place have changed. And while Chekhovian geeks like me find the Russian patronymics and conventions of formal and informal address charming, others find it dense and confusing. A rose by any other name will smell as sweet.

LaFrazia and his able cast really get Chekhov, and perform him in an extremely naturalistic style. There were times when I genuinely felt as if I were eavesdropping on spontaneous conversations – the theatrical equivalent of “reality TV” if you will, which is really what Chekhov, who lived from 1860-1904 and wrote The Seagull in 1895, was in those pre-cathode ray days.

Juliana von Haubrich has designed a splendid set using tall, hollow cylinders of varying diameters to simulate tree trunks. I was sitting in the front row, and so I could see that the trompe l’oeil bark effect was cleverly created by decoupaging pages from books on to the cylinders, and then applying paint and other finishes. The written word plays such an important role in “The Seagull” that I was sad that only upon close examination was this creative genius evident. Books “grow on trees.” Book are made from trees. Paper decomposes into the soil to grow new trees/books…I encourage you to take a close look before the show or during intermission and appreciate von Haubrich’s artistry.

David Sernick has devised some striking video projections for this production, which are woefully underutilized. More, more!

So much is so very right with this production that I am sad to have to report that a key character is woefully miscast. David Lane is a fine actor and I found his Trigorin very likable and sympathetic – until it came to Act IV and I remembered that Trigorin is not SUPPOSED to be likable and sympathetic. That, if anyone can be labeled “the villain” in a Chekhovian comedy – and granted, The Seagull is the darkest of Chekov’s works – he is it.

As I pondered the issue, I decided that I would have preferred to see Jack Sleigh, slightly miscast as Dr. Dorn, as Trigorin and Lane as Dr. Dorn. Another problem with the production is that the cast, with exception of Barby Cardillo as Irina Nicholson (Chekhov’s Mme. Arkadina), is all of an age, and that age is 30. Chekhov always writes for a full spectrum of ages and socio-economic strata, and that is missing here. Sleigh is young to play Dorn. Lane plays a little bit older, and Sleigh has the rougish charm that Trigorin needs and Lane lacks.

The rest of the cast, even the amateurish Todd Hamilton (as Simon Medvedenko), are well utilized though, with the exception of Eric K. Auld, who, as Peter Nicholson, is 30 playing 80, which never works no matter how much sliver hair spray and make-up magic is employed. This is community theatre. Are there no actors over 50 in our community??

Leandra Sharron is luminous as the young Nina in the first three acts, though less able to pull off the sadder and wiser Nina of Act IV. Sharron is not a performer I have seen before, and judging from her program bio she is closer to 20 than to 30. It is very difficult to find an actress who can believably play Nina’s 19-21 year old age arc with the experience and acting chops to fully realize the character. That Sharron does so well with so much of the role is greatly to her credit.

She is well supported by Lane, and by Jed Krivisky as Konstantine. Everyone in The Seagull is in love with the wrong person. Simon pines for Masha (Wendy Walraven) who pines for Konstantine who pines for Nina who pines for Trigorin who doesn’t really give a damn. Irina pines for Trigorin too, while he does the typical male thing and takes off with the younger woman. Masha’s mother, Paulina (Kelli Newby), pines for the caddish Dorn while her husband, Sam (Ross Jacobs), remains cheerfully oblivious to his lovesick women.

The three young people – Kostantine, Nina and Masha – love too much and each pay a terrible price. Krivisky, Walraven, and Sharron are impressive in these intense roles, and I felt their pain. I particularly enjoyed the modern goth take on Chekhov’s melancholy Masha that Walraven and Lafrazia have concocted, which makes the character, who could have been the one mostly solidly stuck in 19th century Russia, thoroughly relatable.

Cardillo plays Irina like Mama Rose, which didn’t quite work for me. I see Irina as a little more genuinely high class. Vaness Phelon’s costumes for Cardillo were too young, tight, and bright. When Irina brags about her ability to dress herself with style, I think she means it. I think Joan Rivers would give her high marks on the red carpet. Cardillo is a beautiful woman, and she is made here to look garish and tacky.

LaFrazia and his cast find lots of great laughs in this play, which makes me happy. Chekhov’s myopically self-centered characters are hilarious in with their endless personal dramas and petty jealousies, and Irina should be a deep well of egocentricity that make you wince while you laugh a her gaffs and cruelties.

The Seagull is first and foremost a play about unrequited love, but it is also a play about art and artists, specifically the arts of writing and acting with Konstantine and Trigorin and Nina and Irina as the rival pairs pitted in the eternal struggle between established talent and newcomers in a world that equally and fickly craves and despises both novelty and celebrity. I would love to get a copy of Schmidt’s translation and write at a later date about what this translator presents as Chekhov’s comments on creation and competition.

LaFrazia has chosen to place the intermission between Acts III and IV, which makes sense for the action of the play – the first three acts take place over the course of a few days, while there is a two year gap in the action between Acts III and IV – but makes for an unbalanced evening of sitting for the audience. In this case the fault is clearly Chekhov’s – he has written a lopsided play – and while placing the intermission at the midpoint of this two and a half hour play is easier on the audience’s backsides, it may be ultimately more disruptive to the plot and therefore less satisfying all around.

This is the last production for Main Street Stage in their storefront home at 57 Main Street in North Adams. Never again will I get to use the term “tunnel-like” to describe their playing space. I did not have a chance to look at the schematics for a proposed downtown performing arts center in North Adams which are on display in the lobby, but that is certainly an idea of which I am all in favor. The Mohawk is a looooooooong time a-coming, and in its present configuration is both too cavernous for a community arts center, and not equipped as a legitimate theatre (it was built as a movie house and barely has a stage, let along wings, fly space, dressing rooms, etc.) The retrofitting of an existing and empty downtown building into a small performance venue which Main Street Stage, Mill City Productions, Minerva Stage, Railway Café, WordPlay, RBIT, and other community groups could share would be a great addition to the Tunnel City.

But I was also struck, while reading co-found and current Artistic Director Alexia Trainor’s remarks in the program, how far this little community theatre has come and how much it has contributed to the burgeoning arts community in northern Berkshire. Fifty productions over the past twelve years; five of them world premieres of new works. And the majority of this has been serious work, not frothy crowd-pleasing-but-brainless musicals and light comedies. Not all of it has been successful, or even good, but a enough of it has been remarkable for me to say, “This is a good and worthy endeavor.”

Main Street Stage, then known as The Manic Stage, opened the same year as MASS MoCA, and I believe both institutions can take credit for building a year-round audience in this region ready to pack the house for new works as well as classics like Shakespeare and Chekhov. Most people don’t realize that as a museum by law MoCA can only “sell” products consistent with its mission. That is why MoCA couldn’t host the Metropolitan Opera’s very popular simulcast series – grand opera is not contemporary art, and neither is Chekhov. Main Street Stage can and has acted to complement MoCA’s outstanding presentations of the new with innovative reimaginings of the old, as well as giving new playwrights a starting ground. They are the kind of theatre that would at least give Konstantine’s plays a hearing, if not a two-weekend run. Do you think Irina would come?

The Seagull runs through May 22 at Main Street Stage, 57 Main Street in North Adams, MA. Curtain time is 8 p.m. on May 5-7, 12, 13 & 19-21 and at 2 p.m. on May 15 & 22. Tickets are $15 and $10 for students and seniors. May 12 is Pay-What-You-Can community night. For tickets or for more information call 413-663-3240 or visit www.mainstreetstage.org. You can also follow the production and get behind-the-scenes details at blog.mainstreetstage.org.

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