Pauline Adamek
Hello intrepid #LAThtr goers!
Here’s a link to my newest theater review for the critical website Stage Raw — which contains the latest arts and theater coverage from our intrepid team of journalists & critics.
Happy reading!
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.
Anton Chekhov’s first major play, the naturalistic bourgeois family drama The Seagull, is a rock-solid classic to mount. Downtown Rep company has selected an historic building in which to stage the 1895 work and so the central courtyard of Pico House serves their semi-modern production admirably, as well as providing a sheltered and cozy outdoor theater experience for audience members. The large yet still intimate space is nicely illuminated and festooned with strings of pea-lights. The inherent acoustics are excellent, with the actors only occasionally competing with sirens, choppers and planes overhead. Director Michael Bernardi makes good use of the upper balconies, especially for the early ‘play-within-a-play’ sequence, that is handsomely and dramatically mounted. He doesn’t quite wrangle a cohesive collective performance from his company, however, and the acting ranges from decent from most to loud and broad from some.
Chekhov’s tragedy focuses on the challenges of being an artist and presents a daisy-chain of unrequited love, rigorously examining the longing, angst, heartache, hostility and depression of a collection of unsatisfied personal relationships. Medvedenko (Dylan Rourke) pines after Masha (Kelsey Siepser) who longs to be noticed by emerging writer Treplev (Devon Armstrong) who adores hopeful actress Nina (Jordan Jude) who becomes infatuated with Treplev’s mother’s boyfriend Trigorin (Andre Engracia Mello). A passionate and questing artist, Treplev not only struggles with his adoration of Nina but petulantly suffers in the shadow of his vain and attention-seeking mother Arkadina (Gillian Doyle), the subject of a reality TV show, snippets of which occasionally play on an upstage screen.
Go here to read the rest of this review…
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.
Downtown Rep at The Pico House.
424 N. Main Street,
Downtown L.A.
Wed—Sun, 7:30p.m.
Show runs until August 31, 2014.
This show is FREE, but reservations are recommended – obtain on their site.
Terry Morgan
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