The Seagull

The Seagull is the first of Chekhov’s four major plays and was first performed in 1896. It revolves around the lives of ten diverse characters as they strive for love, artistic integrity and happiness. Even though it is considered to be one of his comic masterpieces, The Seagull tends to highlight the tragedy within life’s struggles. Stuck together in a dizzyingly hot country estate, tensions boil over between the friends and family of renowned actress Irina Arkadina as they discuss their failed ambitions and doomed desires for love. I was intrigued to see how Magdalene Players would handle such an intense, emotional and verbose production… 

Simon Brumfit (Director), Arabella Gordon (Assistant Director) and Miriam Nice (Producer) are first to be congratulated for delivering such an excellent production. There is a danger that Chekhov’s prose can become dry and unclear if not delivered with feeling, emotion and, where appropriate, with humour. I found each cast member to be credible without overacting. The cast had been carefully selected and well-rehearsed which resulted in all lines being delivered with faultless precision. Staging this drama in-the-round proved to be an excellent decision and provided an intimate atmosphere. Overall, I found the whole production to be highly polished, touching in parts, amusing in others and most absorbing.  

While the script provides some actors more of a chance to shine than others, there wasn’t a ‘weak link’ to be seen. Each character, no matter how small, had just enough nuance to feel believable. The fact that there wasn’t a prompt available, should it be needed, was highly commendable.

Congratulations once again to everyone at Magdalene Players, and those directly involved here, for this really quite excellent production of The Seagull.  I look forward to returning in 2025 and enjoying future quality shows.

Once again, welcome you to NODA!

Des Wilby

Regional Representative

NODA London District 5

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