The Sydney Theatre Company opened this, their last production for 2023, on Saturday 25th November at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.
Opening night was sadly marred by some of the actors donning Palestinian keffiyehs when they took their curtain calls.
All I want to say about this is this – that I, and I am sure many others in the audience, went to see this latest adaptation of Chekhov’s classic play (Chekhov is regarded as Russia’a William Shakespeare) to savour a stimulating, resonant piece of theatre.
The views of these performers should be expressed in another place. There are organised public rallies, on both ‘sides of the fence’ which are regularly held in the city. This would be a more appropriate venue. There are, of-course, other options open to them, such as organising their own personal interviews with media outlets.
To take advantage of expressing their own personal views on a high profile opening night, staged by our flagship state theatre company, felt simplistic, opportunistic, disrespectful and distasteful. We have frames, boundaries in important aspects of our lives, for very good reasons. Otherwise things just spin out of control.
Back to the play, which is, after all, why we went. It was truly excellent theatre. Upton’s contemporary adaptation worked well as did Imara Savage’s direction. Savage’s creative team superbly set up the world for the actors to weave their spell.
The performances were exemplary. Sigrid Thornton’s vain, controlling, insecure prima donna actress Irina, Toby Schmitz’s manic Boris, Irina’s writer husband, stretched to the absolute limit by his always buzzing, far too fertile brain, Harry Greenwood as the introverted, sulky playwright Constantine, Irina’s son, and Mabel Li as his flame, actress Nina, whose ambitions are fa greater than her talents, led the cast.
Anton Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL, adapted by Andrew Upton and directed by Imara Savage, is playing the Roslyn Packer Theatre until the 16th December 2023.
Creative Team
Director Imara Savage
Set Designer David Fleischer
Costume Designer Renée Mulder
Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson
Composer & Sound Designer Max Lyandvert
Literal Translator Marina Lobastov
Assistant Director Ian Michael
Cast
Arka Das, Michael Denkha, Harry Greenwood, Markus Hamilton, Mabel Li, Sean O’Shea, Toby Schmitz,
Sigrid Thornton, Megan Wilding, Brigid Zengeni
Production photography by Prudence Upton