Just off to stage left, atop a varnished and well-crafted bookcase sat an eerily realistic stuffed seagull. Even as characters broke down and fell apart around it, I kept finding my eye drawn to its lifelike yet lifeless appearance. My attention bounced between the bird and the actors onstage, as though the taxidermy itself was a performer on stage. This is when I knew Bates’ production of “The Seagull” was something special.
March 6-10 saw the run of the theater department’s winter production of “The Seagull” by Anton Chekov, held in Schaeffer Theater. Directed by guest director Joshua N Hsu, the show follows a family of Russian creatives, following them as they inevitably unravel by their desires, jealousies and flaws. The countryside lakehouse that the show takes place in and around is the setting for the characters’ love-triangles, creative ambitions and tensions to take place in total isolation.
The play follows the central character of the play Konstantín (played by Jack Hagan ‘27), an aspiring playwright and director who is attempting to push the lines of what is “real” in theater. Much of the first act concerns the production of his very first play which is a surrealist performance piece that is far from a straightforward play. A core theme of this play is the evolving nature and tastes in art, which Konstantín represents a younger and more freeform idea of what theater is.
Opposite to this vision is the more traditional, realist view of theater represented by Konstantín’s mother, Irina (played by Sophia Cattalani ‘25) a famous actress and her partner, Trigórin (played by Dhruv Chandra ‘25) a famous playwright. In the middle of these two drastically different visions of theater is Nina (played by Josie Kim ‘27) who is a young aspiring actor with big dreams of finding success. The core tension at hand in the text is whether theater ought to reflect the real world, or be something abstract and symbolic, and how ascribing to either side of this binary leads to all of these artists to not fully realize their potential.
This tension in styles is represented with brilliant technical elements to the set. Designed by Kerrigan Anuszewski ‘25 and B. Christine McDowell, the set reflects these tensions incredibly well.
Particularly, the backdrop of the lake had a really interesting mechanic in which it could physically grow the distance between the shorelines to change the depth of field fluidly between scenes. Beyond that, the LEDs behind each segment of the “lake” worked as a lighting fixture which was used to great effect during the aforementioned “play within a play” as the water literally runs red. It was both a reflection of something real, but also a symbolic element of the story that was more than just a representation of a lake.
By the second act, the set shifted into various interior spaces of a country house, which happened entirely fluidly while the lights were up. Windows and a sloped roof were flown in together as members of the ensemble began to assemble what became a dining room. The space was brilliantly defined by these artistically carved windows and eaves that created a far more confined space for the emotional pressure to build within.
Costuming, done as well by McDowell, is used to great effect to establish characterization. I find that in period pieces it is very easy for the costuming from one character to another to be hard to distinguish, especially with men’s clothing. Such is not the case in “The Seagull” as each character is given brilliant characterization by their costuming. I particularly enjoyed the quirky coke bottle glasses of the teacher, Seymón (played by Aidan Bergeron ‘27) and the shift of Nina’s character as shown by her change in costume from bright innocent colors from act one to a more solemn and dark palette by the final act.
I likewise very much enjoyed how the production played with many different styles of performance. Throughout the play, there are interludes from the three servant characters of the wealthy family (played by Sadie Rooney ‘27, Samantha Manogue ‘26, and Misaki Fukushima ‘25) that use elements of dance. Both their dance and costuming seem to take inspiration from Russian folk culture, which really contrasted with the stuffiness of the more urban bourgeois characters. These interludes also tell a sort of subplot across the show, which I found to be a nice punctuation and reflection of elements in the main story. They also brought a level of brevity and humor to the show, that at many points, was very needed.
A choice I found to be very effective were these short stylized moments in which the characters spoke to the audience. Accompanied with a sharp lighting and sound queue, this gave each character a moment to express their inner thoughts. Each character has a unique flaw or problem they were working through in the play, so these fourth wall breaks were revealing to what the characters were struggling with. I believe most if not all of the characters got at least one of these asides, which implied emotional arcs were happening beyond what we saw on stage.
This show is incredibly dark at times, dealing with the character’s self destructive behaviors. Hagan’s Konstantín has a tragic inevitability: as soon as we see him with the rifle he uses to kill a seagull, and how emotionally unstable he seems, it’s only a matter of putting two and two together to see where it was going (fun fact, the idea of “Chekov’s Gun” comes from this play). But beyond his deadly fate, the people around Konstantín suffer tragedy as well. Kim’s performance as Nina is a far cry, tonally speaking, from the beginning of the play. No longer an ambitious young actress, Nina has become a jaded and resigned passenger to her own success and failures. Overall, each member of the cast deserves special praise for each portraying their individual moments of defeat.
This production of “The Seagull” oozes with effort from everyone involved: even the smallest details had notes of someone’s care and passion within it. I take that to be “the moral of the story” when it comes to “The Seagull”: what defines art, no matter what form it takes, is this care and attention to the details. Congratulations to the cast and crew of “The Seagull” for a spectacular weekend of performances!
