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Question: Chekhov's - 'The Seagull'!?
I'm thinking of doing a scene from this for my final LAMDA grade exam!.

Has anybody encountered this play before!?

Are there any particular scenes or characters that spring to mind!?

Any info you could give would be greatly appreciated!.

Cheers :)Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The Seagull (Russian: "Чайка" ("Chayka")), written in 1895, is the first of what are generally considered to be Anton Chekhov's four major plays!. It centres on the romantic and artistic conflicts between four theatrical characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading leading lady Irina Arkadina, her son the experimental playwright Konstantin Treplyov, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin!.

Like the rest of Chekhov's full-length plays, The Seagull relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully developed characters!. In opposition to much of the melodramatic theatre of the 19th century, lurid actions (such as Treplyov's suicide attempts) are kept offstage!. Characters tend to speak in ways that skirt around issues rather than addressing them directly, a concept known as subtext!.

The play has a strong intertextual relationship with Shakespeare's Hamlet!. Arkadina and Treplyov quote lines from it before the play-within-a-play in the first act (and the play-within-a-play device is itself used in Hamlet)!. There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well!. For instance, Treplyov seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from his uncle Claudius!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

We did the Caucasian Chalk circle by Brecht - sorry l don't know enough about The Seagull - good luck with that!Www@QuestionHome@Com