The Seagull: Broadway review by Adam Feldman
Chekhov’s The Seagull is a tragicomic daisy chain of she-loves-me-nots. Medvedenko pursues Masha, who pines for Konstantin, who is enraptured by Nina, who is infatuated with Trigorin; meanwhile, Shamrayev is loyal to his wife, Polina, who lusts for Dorn, who is enchanted by Arkadina, who is enamored of Trigorin, who is drawn to Nina. These two strands of unrequited passion meet and tangle in the central couple of Nina and Trigorin, with predictably dire results: She’s a pretty flower, but his is the wrong bed.
The complex romantic ecology of The Seagull requires unusually strong ensemble acting, which Ian Rickson’s production—employing a tautly theatrical Anglicized new translation by Christopher Hampton—apparently boasted in London last year. On Broadway, the cast is less secure. The English transfers are generally strong, but some of the Americans struggle—notably Peter Sarsgaard, who plays Trigorin’s passivity so aggressively that his costars have nothing to work against. Perhaps this is why Kristin Scott Thomas, who earned raves as the vain and icy Arkadina, now sometimes seems disconnected. Happily, the production retains a great central asset: the lovely, captivating Carey Mulligan, who gives Nina a fascinating edge of Eve Harrington, and whose scenes with Konstantin (the lean-framed, baggy-eyed Crook) have a fresh tension. To his credit, Rickson does not condescend to the play’s younger characters, as Mike Nichols did in his star-hobbled 2002 Central Park production. He takes their dreams seriously and, in Mulligan’s Nina, elicits a performance worth dreaming about.
