‘Silver Gulls …’

‘Silver Gulls …’ by Ms Paige Turner
In 1977 (gosh!) I directed Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ with a bunch of warm and widely cosmopolitan Canadian students at the Dome Theatre in Montreal. It’s my favourite of Chekhov’s seven full-length plays. As a director’s gift the cast gave me a silver seagull locket which I have always kept and treasured. ‘Because,’ they said, ‘they could not find any jewellery relating to ‘three sisters’.
‘The Seagull’ is one of Chekhov’s earlier plays: a study in what it is to be an artist and human – or a study in what it is to ‘want’ to be an artist and human. Konstantin is the trigger-happy son of the successful actress Madame Arkadina but he’s envious of his mother’s partner: the successful young writer Trigorin. I say ‘trigger-happy’ as Konstantin shoots the gull, which is symbolic of the man who shoots the free bird: the young ingénue Nina thereby destroying her art and her being. After unsuccessfully shooting himself dead, he ultimately manages to do so. So he’s not really happy about anything at all especially as Trigorin falls for the young Nina with whom Konstantin is in love. So they all shoot the bird. They destroy each other and their own selves.
In this study to be an artist we see the successful Trigorin, unable to function without the relationship with the older Madame Arkadina. One can suspect that his success may be linked to the contacts he makes and has made with the established actress. He’s not satisfied with his creative works. Nina falls for him – or does she fall for his success? Konstantin is not successful and criticizes what he considers his mother’s commercial artistic leanings. Nina discovers the path to fame does not glitter and Madame Arkadina’s brother is a successful High Court Judge but always wanted to write.
The National staged this with the minimum of set, reminiscent of a rehearsal room. (Chekhov would have embraced this, as words were it all for him. The last thing the playwright would have wanted was a screeching seagull.) It almost could have been a radio play but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss all those facial expressions transported across the stage like thought bubbles. They almost re-wrote the play too, updating with references to social media and casting directors.
It worked. I loved it. Loved the cast and still love my silver seagull pendant.
My four plays are available from www.stagescripts.com