The Seagull

It’s hot. Everything is becoming exhausting. It would be easier not to deal with anything at all. But Nina wants to be an actress, Treplev is searching for new forms in art, Arkadina refuses to come to terms with her age, and Trigorin can find no inspiration to write. Everyone longs for something. The relentlessly scorching heat awakens passions and unconditional infatuations. Yet desire remains unfulfilled, and everyone returns again and again to melancholy, stagnation, and the idea of another, perhaps better life. They find themselves trapped in their own blindness. How can we be happy when we are constantly longing for something we do not have? The Seagull is a celebration of intense emotions, grand gestures, youth and old age, and the hope that life could be different. It explores both the courage and the inability to discover different forms of relationships: fatal infatuations, unrequited desire, the need to be loved, and the belief that happiness will come with someone else. What can modern love offer us? Are we capable of loving anyone other than ourselves?

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HaDivadlo’s ensemble takes on this classic drama to ask what lies behind our own blindness and how we might read one of the most frequently staged plays today. Together, the actors and the directing collective search for themes that continue to resonate more than a century after the play was written: the desire for love, recognition, change, and a different life. And what if the oppressive, scorching heat persists into autumn?