The Seagull

Synopsis

The famous actress Arkadina arrives on vacation at the country estate of her brother Sorin, where she and the writer Trigorin attend a performance of a play written by Treplev, Arkadina's son. In this show directed by the author of the play himself, he plays Nina, a young woman who lived on the neighboring estate and who dreams of becoming an actress. Right from the first act, we notice other relationships between the characters: Professor Medvedenko loves Masha, the estate manager's daughter, who is in love with Treplev, who in turn is courting Nina. Trigorin is an already famous writer, whom Nina admires and, meeting him, falls in love with him. The last act of the play takes place two years later, also in Sorin's house, where we find out what happened in the meantime: Masha accepted the marriage with Medvedenko, although she still loves Treplev in vain; Nina and Trigorin lived for a time together in Moscow until he abandoned her and returned to Arkadina. Nina never became a successful actress, Treplev continued to write and dream about Nina. After having dinner, everyone else retires to play cards, and Treplev is surprised by an unexpected visit from Nina. Devastated, Nina confesses to Treplev what she has experienced in recent years, the disappointment related to acting, but also the pain caused by the death of the child she had with Trigorin and the all-consuming love and longing for him. Treplev helplessly witnesses another departure of Nina, then destroys the manuscript he was working on. The end of the play is triggered by a gunshot heard from offstage, and Dorn tells Trigorin that Treplev has committed suicide.

Chronicles:

"The Craiova show is not only important because of the modernity of the vision of the text. But also through its cohesion. Validated as such by acting. Yiannis Paraskevopoulos successfully relied on complementarities and contrasts. (...) Arkadina Ceraselei Iosifescu is impetuous, capricious, voluntary, authentic and theatrical at the same time. (…) Iulia Colan undoubtedly deserves praise, and not a few, too, refined, not at all vulgar, not at all aggressive, sometimes quasi-spectral in the accomplished evolution of the role of Nina Zarecinaia."

Mircea Morariu – "The Seagull Movie" - Adevărul / February 29, 2016

"Yiannis Paraskevopoulos managed to find an innovative formula that captures attention from the first scene (...) one of the freshest Chekhovian retellings. It is, at the same time, an impeccable show at the image level, moving the Seagull into a dream-poetic plane and conferring, as in Robert Wilson, an extra symbolic note."

Silvia Dumitrache – "The Test of the Seagull" / Cultural Observatory, no. 802 / 11.12.2015

"Color effects build a pictorial spectacle. Lia Dogaru created an atmospheric scenography, brilliantly serving the directorial project. (…) The National Seagull of Craiova is a successful innovative rereading of Chekhov's play, in a real pictorial show that surprises with the wealth of suggestions and the special interpretations of some central characters .”

Ileana Lucaciu – "The seagull - conqueror of current theatrical illustration", "Spectator" blog / 30 dec.2015

"In The Seagull, the dramatic conflict is supported by the vital, desperate search for "new forms" that Treplev and all artists dream of, and Paraskevopoulos' challenge is to find the signs, language, symbols that do not contradict this vision that fines the aggression, the exhaustion of the dramatic text . Perhaps this is the reason why the performance oscillates between unconventional moments, built unitarily and boldly from an aesthetic point of view, and fragmentary architecture."

Daniela Firescu – "Back to black: The seagull revisited", rev. Branches, no. 1 / ian. 2016

"The performance of Yiannis Paraskevopoluos frees the dramatic text from the burden of Chekhovian slowness, everything is alive and unexpected. No samovar graces the scene. The set and costumes created by Lia Dogaru capture the striking force of the energy of the colors. This "seagull" captures unfulfilled loves and tells a beautiful and sad story, just like life. It begins with the vigor and joy of youth, dominated by color and energy, and slides unexpectedly into a gray melancholy of the twilight of being, the dissipation of dreams and aspirations. Color and joy are diluted into an oppressive mourning of the conventional.”

lect. university Dr. Haricleea Nicolau – extract from the program book of the show "The Seagull"