The Seagull

I watched the performance tonight of the third year actors performing the Seagll. Perhaps it's because I am not a theatre buff, but I really had no time for the play. It was exceedingly dull - the story was predictable and the pace pedestrian, the characters were hysterically emotional and generally unlikeable. The set was splendid however, but this tended only to show up the poverty of the actual piece itself. Like Ibsen, Chekov has gained some sort of reputation as a playwright among the middle-class intelligentsia of our society, but having seen one play by each of them, I am still very much waiting to be impressed! If I was to analyse the story in filmic terms, there was no clear protagonist, no drive, no goal, no inciting incident. Just a bunch of events happening to a bunch of people with vast amounts of pointless chatter in between. And then they threw in a random offstage suicide at the end just to make a clear finish to the play.

Poor show!