The Seagull

The Seagull (Russian: Чайка, Chayka) written in 1895 and first produced in 1896 is the first of the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. These are considered his great Russian classics. It dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the ingenue Nina, fading actress Irina Arkadina, her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin. As with the rest of Chekhov's full-length plays, The Seagull relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully-developed characters. Characters tend to speak in ways that skirt around issues rather than addressing them directly. This new translation by Tatiana Pozdniakova was first produced by Frank Theatre Company at Barons Court Theatre London on 22 February 2011, and edited by Amy Simpson.