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Sunday 6 June 2010

The Seagull

The Seagull is one of Anton Chekhov full-length tragi-comic plays. This performance has you laughing, but by the end you will leave the theatre rather melancholy; but not for long as you reflect on the brilliant performance by all the actors.
I had never been to the Sidetrack Theatre, it is an amazing set up. Even going to the bathroom is an adventure; you sort of feel, you have somehow traveled back in time. This has nothing to do with the play, which, wow, this was a very good production, congratulations to the director/ producer Kate Gaul.
Kate hasn't tried to overly complicate this production, which was good because it let the quality of the acting shine. All the actors played their part with passion and credibility. The long monologues were well executed. They kept you in the moment thanks to the excellent intonation from the actors. There were two performances however that just piped the others the first is Zoe Carides portrayal of Irina Arkardina. Irina as the mother of Konstantin Treplev a want to be writer. Irina is very egocentric and poor Konstantin lives very much in her shadow. The other performance was that of Katherine Cullen as Masha. Her performance in one of the scenes as a very drunk, rather sad Masha was very realistic.
Will you enjoy this play, should you see it? Yes, it was very good and I would add it to your list of possibilities for the month of June.

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