River Oaks Theatre Special Presentation: Stage Russia: The Seagull

River Oaks Theatre presents a Special Presentation: Stage Russia: The Seagull.

The Seagull, Anton Chekhov’s first of four major plays, dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between its four main characters: Boris Trigorin (Denis Sukhanov), a well-known writer; the ingenue Nina (Agrippina Steklova); the fading actress Irina Arkadina (Polina Raykina) and her son the would-be playwright Konstantin Tréplev (Timofey Tribuntcev).

Director Yury Butusov’s frenetic production, to be recorded in 2017, abounds in an incredible freedom and openness, delving deep into the throes of artistic creation and the anguish of the artist who struggles to find a language of his own.

This is not only a performance about the theatre, it is an anthology of the theatre that devours its children like monsters.

With the shuffling of actors’ roles, you begin to sense something of a quadraphonic portrait of the creative personality, which demonstrates that greatness is precariously close to mediocrity while suggesting that the opposite is also true.

Chekhov’s characters are in the process of creating their lives or watching them fall apart, which, according to Butusov, may be a closely related activity.

(Fully subtitled)

STAGE RUSSIA: THE SEAGULL (NR)
3 hrs, 50 mins

RELEASE: 10/25/2017

CAST: Polina Raykina, Timofey Tribuntcev, Vladimir Bolshov, Agrippina Steklova, Anton Kuznetcov, Lika Nifontova, Mariana Spivak, Denis Sukhanov

DIRECTOR: Yury Butusov