The Seagull, in a new version by Christopher Hampton and directed by Ian Rickson, opens tonight, October 2nd at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street). The production plays a limited 14-week engagement through Sunday, December 21st.
Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, written in 1895 and the first of the playwright’s masterworks, concerns the romantic entanglements and regrets of a group of actors, writers and artists gathered on a Russian estate. One of the theatre’s great plays about writing, The Seagull conveys the struggle for new forms and the frustrations and fulfillment of putting words on a page.Director Ian Rickson originally staged this production of The Seagull as his farewell to the Royal Court Theatre, when he ended his seven-year tenure as the distinguished theatre’s Artistic Director. The limited run became a sold out smash hit and the biggest selling production in the Royal Court’s 50 year history. Ms. Scott Thomas went on the win the 2007 Olivier Award for her performance.
Ben Brantley, The New York Times, wrote, “The marvel of Ian Rickson’s rapturous interpretation of The Seagull, which quickly became a must-have and largely unhaveable ticket, is how seamlessly it captures the vital paradox that so often escapes productions of this masterwork: the bursting theatrical fullness to be found in its unfulfilled lives. Kristin Scott Thomas is in expert form. Productions like Mr. Rickson’s The Seagull are such rarities that it hardly seems fair to measure others against them.” John Lahr, The New Yorker, pronounced it “the finest British production of Chekhov in recent memory with a pitch-perfect cast, elegant staging and the clarity and cunning of Christopher Hampton’s adaptation.” David Benedict, Variety, praised The Seagull as “a bold, supremely truthful production. Chekhov's plays live on a knife edge routinely described as ‘tragic-comic.’ Most productions, however, topple over into either doomy tragedy or overly fierce comedy. The exhilaration of Rickson's balancing act is evident from the very opening.”
