Anton P. Cechov The Seagull

Production of the Deutsches Theater Berlin

Coproduction with the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

Duration of the performance: approx. 3 hours, 1 break

CREATIVE TEAM

Jürgen Gosch, Direction
Johannes Schütz, Set design and Costume design
Bettina Schültke, Dramaturgy
Torsten König, Light design

CAST

Corinna Harfouch, Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina
Jirka Zett, Konstantin Gavrilovich Trepljev
Christian Grashof, Pyotr Nicolayevich Sorin
Kathleen Morgeneyer, Nina Mikhailovna Sarechnaya
Bernd Stempel, Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev
Simone von Zglinicki, Polina Andreyevna
Meike Droste, Masha
Alexander Khuon, Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin
Peter Pagel, Evgeny Sergeyevich Dorn
Christoph Franken, Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko
Ben Clark, Jakow
Przemek Zybowski, Cook
Theresa Schütz, Parlor maid

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The teacher loves Masha, Masha loves Kostya, who loves Nina, and she in turn loves the writer Trigorin, who, however, loves only himself. Chekhov’s bittersweet comedy The Seagull is about love and surviving unhappiness, about escaping provincial boredom and the production of art: “We describe life as it is, and not a bit more. We have no immediate or long-term goals, our hearts are empty. We have no politics, we do not believe in a revolution, we have no god, and we are not afraid of ghosts. Whether this is an illness or not – it is not about the labeling, but about the confession of our situation,” Chekhov wrote to a friend and colleague. Chekhov manages to reflect the emotional misery of suffering people in their daily lives and their idleness in a society that is materially saturated, making all this seem funny and ridiculous at the same time.
Only a wall, black as night, provides the backdrop for The Seagull, as if all the warmth and color of life had bled away – thus, director Jürgen Gosch and his designer Johannes Schütz continued their exploration of Chekhov in December of 2008 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Even more bare and unprotected is the way the actors display their art of illuminating concentrates of life and letting them fade away again under the rehearsal lights on the proscenium. Supposed old acquaintances appear as never before: Corinna Harfouch’s harsh, remarkably non-coquettish provincial diva Arkadina, Alexander Khuon’s man of letters, whose unusual youth makes his emotional sloppiness even more monstrous. They just keep going, walking all over the attempts and aspirations of the younger ones: Nina, the failed actress (Kathleen Morgeneyer), is destroyed by false love, Kostya, the failed theatrical innovator (Jirka Zett), embraces death. Jürgen Gosch keeps up this dissonance mercilessly: in the end, the group portrait freezes in front of the black wall.

PICTURE GALLERY