The Seagull was a solid performance but I was surprised to see a less-than-perfect execution. Perhaps this was due to such a demanding and intricate Chekhov play, or perhaps the fact it had so many screen actors starring in it. But I still remember Tony Danza playing the lead in Miller's A View from the Bridge and blown away by his perfection.
Less-than-perfect is pretty harsh- I mean the acting was stellar, but there were a few fibbed lines, a few blocking accidents, and some pretty unrealistic intimacy and physicality. You know when people hug and real life and then when people hug on stage? It looked like sometimes it was people hugging on stage, or for that matter holding hands or slapping each other...on stage.
There wasn't one performance that stole the show. They were all stellar and all complimented one another very well. The set was also lovely- wooden and bleak and conveying wonderfully a sense of the russian countryside. Although plagued with "jimmy leg" syndrome, I was able to sit comfortably through the 2+ hour performance.
This may have also been in part to the heavy nostalgia I was going thru, reliving my own role as Constantin back during junior year. It was odd how the lines came rushing back to me, and it was odd in hindsight realizing how little of the play I used to understand. I had no knowledge of the "old" vs. "new" form argument in literature that was happening around this time, and that was a major theme of Constantin's direction of passion.
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