THE SEAGULL

Thinking about the launch of The Classics Company in the new year is exciting, and filled with trepidation! Starting a new company is a huge undertaking, and something that theater-makers of the late 19th century in Russia could relate to as well.

Seeing our beautiful designs to launch the season and our company with The Seagull made me think of the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT). Founded in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, they wanted to establish a theatre of new art forms and to make art available to the general public. Much like much of our own company, the original ensemble was made up of mostly non-professional actors which created strong collaboration and community. 

A famous actress named Arkadina presides over a multi-generational family of artists in the Russian countryside. Arkadina’s son Konstantin, a writer, loves the young actress Nina, who is transfixed by the fame of Arkadina’s lover Trigorin, also a writer. All four go their separate ways, but two years later they are reunited at the same estate, reviving their romantic and artistic conflicts. Through their desperate love, dreams of success and dread of failure we learn that what each of them idolizes is the very thing they lack. Heralded as one of Chekhov's greatest works, The Seagull plays comedy and drama on a knife-edge.