MIME

MCB-TV-8155

THE SEAGULL

Chekhov, Anton Tschechow, Anton Pawlowitsch

“To stage Chekhov is to diagnose the diseases of our time, the gouts of our soul, using intonations like scalpels. For an actor to venture into playing in Chekhov’s plays is somewhat similar to a doctor taking the Hippocratic Oath because every moment in a Chekhovian drama is a metastasis of fate. Unfortunately, often the passion, love, jealousy, and hatred present in Chekhov’s plays have been hushed up, drowned in the fog of minor intellectual elegies, tea-table talks, with life merely passing by. But all this is nothing but academic and, in fact, truly political censorship. In truth, life does not pass by in Chekhov’s plays – it opens up for the characters and the audience with all the power of its love and existential horror” – the director Koršunovas shares his ideas on the play he’s working on. The director and his group of actors are trying to get to the very core of the play, which has been more than often concealed under ornate costumes, sumptuous set designs or uplifting intonations.

The Seagull was born in the laboratory space of the OKT studio. The Lower Depths and Krapp’s Last Tape were staged and Hamlet and Miranda took their first steps in this open, intimate, unadorned, authentic space. The director sees a very close relationship between The Seagull, which is still in the making, and Hamlet and The Lower Depths that are already running.

“This is a great play to experiment. From the very beginning, it was doomed for explorations. With The Seagull we continue exploring the themes also present in Hamlet and The Lower Depths, those of the contemporary theatre, the contemporary actor, and the contemporary viewer. The Seagull is the third part of the triptych. All of these parts are joined together by a special focus on the actors. In The Seagull we seem to seek the impression that the audience is included in the story. Such interactivity is not autotelic – already fifteen years ago, our theatre formulated one of its main mottos, i.e. to stage classics as contemporary plays, making them an interpersonal experience rather than a historical digression. Therefore, we seek the viewer’s involvement in the creative process of the play.” (Koršunovas)