The Seagull - Softcover

Stoppard, Tom; Chekhov, Anton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057119270X ISBN 13: 9780571192700

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001

Synopsis

The Seagull, a spectacular failure on its first appearance, was the play that, on its second, established Anton Chekhov as an important and revolutionary dramatist. Here, amid the weariness of life in the country, the famous actress Arkadina presides over a household riven with desperate love, with dreams of success and dread of failure. It is her son, Konstantin, who one day shoots a seagull; it is the novelist Trigorin who will one day write the story of the seagull so casually killed; but it is Nina, the seagull herself, whose life to come will rewrite the story.

This new translation of The Seagull--made by Tom Stoppard for the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic in 1997--was produced by The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City in 2001. The volume also contains an Introduction by Stoppard that indicates some of the problems translators have faced since the first English language Seagull in 1909

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Anton Chekhov's The Seagull is considered one of his most haunting and atmospheric character studies. A would-be playwright is at war with his egoistic mother while the town has become intoxicated by a sensational author. And as the alluring newcomer steals away Kosta's only love, their new romance could have devastating consequences.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:

Calista Flockhart as Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina

T.R. Knight as Konstantin Treplev

Stephen Collins as Yevgeny Dorn

Gordon Clapp as Ilya Shamrayev

Logan Fahey as Semyon Medvedenko

Cindy Katz as Polina Andreyevna

Dakin Matthews as Pyotr Sorin

Bess Rous as Masha

Josh Stamberg as Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin

Kira Sternbach as Nina

Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Translated by Christopher Hampton. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience at the James Bridges Theater, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in September 2012.

From the Back Cover:

A group of friends and relations gather at a country estate to see the first performance of an experimental play, written and staged by the young man of the house, Konstantin. Among the audience are Konstantin's mother, the actress Arkadina, and her lover, the famous novelist Trigorin. Their glamorous presence not only disrupts the performance but soon takes on a more profound significance for the lives of all those present. The Seagull has always been a favourite among Chekhov's plays. It was in fact his first success - and the first success for Stanislavski, who directed and acted in it - though the first ever production of the play had been a disaster.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 057119270X
• ISBN 13: 9780571192700
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96