The Seagull 2001 - Articles Page 6

The renowned scholar Michael Henry Heim, professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of California, has written a brilliant new translation of this play that established Chekhov. One of the first productions of the Moscow Art Theatre, the plot deals with a young Treplev, his unfulfilled literary ambitions and his love for Nina. Convinced that he has lost her and furious at her attention to the literary lion, Trigorin, the despairing young man kills a seagull and lays it at Nina's feet as a symbol of his ruined hopes. Nina leaves with Trigorin, only to return later after Trigorin has lost interest in her. In a moving half-coherent speech, she compares herself to the seagull destroyed by a man's momentary whim. In this translation, Professor Heim gives us a fluent, utterly Chekhovian text without making it so contemporary that the play loses its sense of period. This is The Seagull that soars.