Script
based upon Anton Chekhov- Iaroslav Fedoryshyn
After the success of the open-air performance of
Anton Chekhov masterpiece
«The Cherry Orchard»,
Voskresinnia theatre have produced a show based on
the literary declaration of the genius writer -
after one of the most poignant and touching
biographies presented in the drama «The Seagull»
(premiere in 1896). Although he was writing before
Freud, his plays essentially dramatize the
unconscious. Chekhov's style is akin to what
psychiatrists call "hovering." He is at once
involved and detached:. He immerses the audience in
the interplay of emotional contradiction and
shifting perspective, an impressionistic sleight of
hand that yields an uncanny sense of the real
—"everyday life, accessible to all, and yet
understood by almost no one in its cruel inner
irony, life so . . . close to us that at times you
forget you are in a theatre" (NYT) . «The Seagull»
which apparently tells the story a boy, whose whole
series of writers’ and love stories lead to suicide.
The play is actually a comedy about the passing of
time, youth, and idealism, which are affected by age
and experience. It is not shown directly as in
Chekhov play is. The behaviour of the characters is
flexible and indeterminate. The scenes depicted from
the life of the country make the atmosphere a bit
nostalgic. Keeping the atmosphere of Chekhov’s
world, the director plays with the feelings of the
audience, with their fantasies, and directs the
audience to Shakespeare and Nekrošius. This is a
demonstration of young artists with a very different
look for life, an older generation who guard their
old standpoints, wonderful love, the search for
life, also in art. All is simplicity and swiftness,
the elusive but proper ozone for the tragicomic
realm that "The Seagull" inhabits. The play's
theatrical game of hide-and-seek progresses from
realism to a heightened, almost mystical, lyricism.
Both in the rhythms of his scenes and in the rhythms
of his language, Chekhov aspires to trap the
unspoken and the unutterable. Fireworks, fire
and video projections complete the spectacle of the
performance.
Directed, and music preparation Jarosław
Fedoryshyn
, set and costumes Alla Fedoryshyn
co-direction and light design: Krzysztof
Dubiel, video Andrij Kogut, sound
Sergiy Kondratovych.
Premiere: 14 June2015 în La Strada of Kalisz (Pl)
Duration: 60 minut Opening
evening,
Kalisz, La Strada 14 June 2015
The Seagull proved to be a very comprehensible
performance despite so many
image and we might say
even poetic devices used by its director. But this
The Seagull must, probably, be „read” using our
hearts and not ours heads. It’s nothing but pure
Fedoryshyn’s poetry - at one moment some skeletons
of inconceivable animals, spewing green and pink
smoke, appear in front of the audience, at the next
the fireworks are lit up, then real rockets with
salutes burst in the sky and ashes fall on the heads
of spectators. The participation effect is, to be
honest, incredible. As if you sit in front of Nina
who delivers her famous monologue “Men, lions,
eagles and partridges…” Here is Nina, wearing white
wings - and this is a beautiful tragic scene. But
then for some reason Kostya gets white “seagull”
wings. Then Trigorin, the darling of fortune,
Arkadina and other characters of the play get them
too. Fedoryshyn turns them all into birds with a
broken wing.
“Are all of the characters in your play “seagulls”?”
we asked Fedoryshyn. He said, “Yes, we are all “seagulls”,
I guess”.
Tatiana Szełamowa , Weczernyj Brest, 11.09.2016
A
procession of characters is presented to the
audience. They go round in a circle in the beginning
of the play and during the whole play. Such walking
in a circle does not allow the characters to step
outside it; everything starts and ends with this
circle, despite the strong desire of Kostya and Nina
to escape it. Then small children appear in front of
us, they dream to become adult and great as Arkadina
and to reach Trigorin’s heights.
Natalia Kowpańko, ispolkombrest, 12.09.2016
The production is based
on the storyline of the same named Chekhov’s play
about the relationships of Konstantin Treplev and
Nina Zarechnaya. The whole performance is
accompanied by a wing beat of a seagull. The
“flight” begins when an actor climbs high scenery
and releases a seagull over Lenin Square and the
heads of the audience. A seagull represents a lonely
unhappy bird doomed to endlessly fly calling above
water. The main female character Nina Zarechnaya
also compares herself to such seagull. The Seagull
outdoors is based on contrasts. One minute actors
sweat in baths and playfully strike each other with
bath brooms and the next a grieving lady in black
clothes walks down the square. The dialogue of
actors with the audience is performed in the
language of images and feelings. The revived
characters of the well-known play expressed
suffering, enjoinment, admiration and sadness by
means of their acting. There were hardly any words
in this performance. The associations,embodied in
special effects, helped to understand what was
happening. The animations, fireworks, vessels with
fire and different scenery would not let the
audience get distracted from the events on stage.
Lviv troupe
A
parking downtown was transformed into a stage
for many actors in Ukraine, having adapted the
play „The Seagull” in a unique way. Helped by
pyrotechnics, lights and music, artists
impressed the audience, who rewarded him with
applause.
He reigned an atmosphere of mystery Thursday in
Timisoara, where hundreds of people took part in
a unique show in the street. Help fireworks,
fire and video screenings, artists were able to
stage Anton Chekhov’s play ... without uttering
any reply. Although the words were missing, the
audience was responsive.
Spectator: I was was interesting and impressive
story resonates ii each other and we go through all
the stages of the soul from ... since we were little
ones and probably ones that I have not lived yet. I
think that deserves applause.
Stirileprotv.ro
Everything is symbolic
in the play and there are no superfluous details:
the characters’ states of minds are described by
means of titles, romantic feelings of the characters
burst into flame accompanied by fireworks and
background music helps the audience to feel the
state of the characters. Not only Nina gets wings
but Kostya too, and then Arkadina and other
characters of the play get them as well. Even with
one wing – they are seagulls with broken destiny too.
In order to fly up, they need fire in their souls,
an impetus for life and creativity, but it dies
down, never having started. People destroy this fire,
just like Trigorin destroys Nina Zarechnaya, “a free
and happy girl, who he saw and destroyed out of
idleness”. Treplev tries to fight; he believes that
people need a new theater and new forms. He gives
each lady one wing, but his attempts are useless –
eventually men with burnt wings, representing ruin
of hopes, start to spin around performing a bizarre
dance. The refusal of creativity is a crime and
seagulls, symbols of freedom, take their revenge.
The old people still carry their heavy sacks with
acquired
fot.Henryk Wajda
possessions –
their principles and foundations, because it is not
that easy to let them go. In the end, as envisioned
by the director, only skeletons are left – this is
all that remained of human life, passions and dreams.
Belaruski Partizan,
13.09.2017
told us their own interpretation of
Chekhov’s story in an unusual but quite plain
language.The director Yaroslav Fedoryshyn answered
a few questions of “BG” after the performance. –
What does The Seagull tell viewers about? – It
reminds people that they have wings inside of them
and they all must fly. And if wings break, it is bad.
There are many seagulls in the play, because there
are many people too. We are all seagulls by nature.
Together with actors we visually embody associations
so that it will be interesting to watch. A unique
music was composed for the play. — It is not the
first time that you refer to Chekhov. What makes him
interesting for you? — Chekhov attracts me by always
saying: “We all think that everything is ahead of us
while actually everything in our lives is behind us”.
Life is very short. We often do not think about it.
Lots need to be done while there is still time.
Irina Botvina , Brestskaja Gazeta, 16.09.2016
Lviv
Academic Theatre Voskresinnia
Timisoara.gif)
