Latest news with #TheSeagull
Indian Express
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
From ‘The Seagull' to ‘The Cherry Orchard': 4 Anton Chekhov plays that changed the face of theatre
(Written by Taniya Chopra) 'Shakespeare was a bad writer, and I consider your plays even worse,' Russian author Leo Tolstoy is said to have told his contemporary Anton Chekhov. Tolstoy was not the only one, many other great writers and critics were of like mind. They were quick to dismiss Chekhov because his plays lacked a traditional plot and nothing grand happened in them. What they failed to realise, however, was that was the beauty of his plays. Chekhov, ultimately, proved the naysayers wrong and demonstrated that drama does not always need action, just truth. Silence speaks loudly in Chekhovian plays. His characters are flawed beings, and the most powerful moments in his plays are not shouts or slams, but what is left unsaid. The Seagull 'If at any time you should have need of my life, come and take it.' If heartbreaks and quiet longings are your jam, then The Seagull is just the play for you. Widely considered Chekov's most dramatic play, it is the story of Konstantin, a writer, who wants his talents to be recognised by his mother, Irina Arkadina, a famous actress. Irina's lover, Boris Trigorin, a successful writer, soon begins an affair with Nina, an aspiring actress whom Konstantin loves. What follows is a storm of sorrow and unrequited love. Dreams of characters wither and their love slips away, and the pain of being left behind never quite fades. Set on a country estate, it shows the frustration of characters stuck in monotonous routines, who long for something more. The professor and his young wife,Yelena, visit the countryside, where Sonya, his daughter from a previous marriage, manages the family farm along with her Uncle Vanya. Amid the quiet routine of country life, Yelena becomes the focus of affection from two men, each carrying their own dreams and desires. Throughout the play, the characters face the pain of wasted years. Their silent screams can be heard through the script. Chekhov doesn't offer any resolution in this play, just the crushing weight of endurance. 'We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us' The play delves into the lives of three sisters – Olga, Masha and Irina – who yearn to return to their former life in Moscow after being stuck in a provincial town. The sisters bear the burden of unfulfilled dreams and the monotony of their existence. This play of Chekhov captures the subtle beauty and the silent ache of time passing away. The sisters hold on to ideals of love and a brighter future, but as each act passes, that future drifts further away. They keep waiting for life to begin, not realising it is already slipping by. It forces us to dwell on the question: if we spend our entire lives waiting for happiness, will we recognise it when it does? A reflection on memory and the end of an era. Chekhov's final play was written just a year before his death in 1904. The play is about an aristocratic family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their estate, and with it, their beloved cherry orchard. One needs to read in between the lines to know that Chekhov is actually talking about late 19th century Russia, which is on the brink of transformation. Throughout the play, characters try to deal with personal disappointments and the loss of their estate. Each character responds to change differently, some resist it, others embrace it. The cherry orchard stands as a bittersweet reminder of the past, a fading reminder of their ways of life of old Russia. The Cherry Orchard is not just a farewell to a family estate, it's Chekov's farewell to theatre. 'The distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, of a breaking string, dying away sadly. Silence follows it, and only the sound is heard, some way away in the orchard, of the axe falling on the trees. Curtain falls' (The writer is an intern with
New York Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era
In a show that recently opened at the LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in the East Village, a group of actors led by a young, ambitious, charmingly naïve director are almost finished rehearsing Chekhov's 'The Seagull' at the famed Moscow Art Theater when Russia invades Ukraine. Thanks to social media, they can hear the sirens and see the bombs falling on Kharkiv and Kyiv. We witness the shock and disbelief, the feeling of utter impossibility of staying in one's country, one's city, one's skin that so many people in Moscow experienced in the days after the full-scale invasion. They cry. They shout at one another. One of them frantically packs a suitcase. And then the show goes on. This isn't a theater review, and I'm not here to tell you why you should go see the play, 'Seagull: True Story.' I have too many social connections to Alexander Molochnikov, the exile Russian director, and anyway, the current run is sold out. I'm interested in something else: that moment when the shock fades and the (figurative) show goes on. I think we are entering that moment in the United States. Living in and reporting on Russia when Vladimir Putin took and consolidated power, I was shocked many times. I couldn't sleep in September 2004, after tanks shelled a school in which terrorists were holding hundreds of children hostage, and I was shocked when Putin used this terrorist attack as a pretext to eliminate elected governorships. I was shaken when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. My world changed when three very young women were sentenced to jail time for a protest performance in a church in 2012, the first time Russian citizens were imprisoned for peaceful action. I couldn't breathe when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. And when the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021 and almost certainly killed in prison in 2024. And when Russia again invaded Ukraine in 2022. Along the way there were many smaller, yet also catastrophic, milestones: the state takeovers of universities and media outlets, the series of legislative steps that outlawed L.G.B.T.Q. people, the branding of many journalists and activists as 'foreign agents.' The state of shock would last a day or a week or a month, but time went on and the shocking event became a fact of our lives. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Cate Blanchett, 55, stuns in a green three-piece suit as she leads stars at National Theatre after announcing plans to retire from acting
Cate Blanchett turned heads as she led the stars at the National Theatre 2025 Season Launch in London on Tuesday evening. The Oscar-winning actress, 55, who recently declared that she is to retire from acting, looked incredible in a satin green three-piece suit. The stunning ensemble featured tailored trousers, a longline blazer, and a plunging waistcoat. She teamed the stylish look with a pair of classic white trainers and pulled her golden locks into a low up-do. Earlier in the evening, the star appeared in high spirits as she was spotted arriving at the event before posing up a storm on the red carpet. Also at the event were the likes of Fay Ripley, Fiona Shaw, Olivia Williams, Stephen Mangan, Mark Gatiss and Rosalie Craig. It comes after Cate revealed her plans to retire from acting after treading the boards for over three decades. Earlier this month, the star hesitated about her job title during an interview with Radio Times, explaining: 'It's because I'm giving up [acting]. My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting.' Cate insisted she had 'a lot of things I want to do with my life' other than appearing on screen. The Australian star, who recently starred in an adaptation of Chekov's The Seagull at London's Barbican, did not give a timeframe on her departure from the entertainment industry. But it is not the first time that she has threatened to quit her career despite her international acclaim. She told Vanity Fair in 2023 that she has often toyed with the idea of walking away from her acting work. She said: 'It's not occasional — it's continual. On a daily or weekly basis, for sure. 'It's a love affair, isn't it? So you do fall in and out of love with it, and you have to be seduced back into it.' Also at the event was Fay Ripley (left), Fiona Shaw (right), Olivia Williams, Stephen Mangan , Mark Gatiss and Rosalie Craig. Mark Gatiss and Rosalie Craig were all smiles together at the event as the embraced each other on the red carpet Despite her latest declaration, the Lord of the Rings star is set to feature in her first radio play on Radio 4 on Saturday in a 90-minute monologue titled The Fever. Written by Wallace Shawn, Blanchett will play an unnamed traveller who falls ill in a foreign country riven by civil war. The mother-of-four explained why she had chosen to embark on her first audio radio project. She told the Radio Times: 'I'm obsessed with the psychological space that is the interior of people's cars. 'Often the most profound and intense and memorable conversations that I have with my children are in the car.' 'That special space was where my 16-year-old encountered Desert Island Discs and now he's completely obsessed with it, and, because the school run is quite long, it's where I listen to long-form radio drama.' Cate has racked up thousands of rave reviews over the last 30 years after working tirelessly across dozens of projects in theatre, film and TV. Cate revealed her big plans in the April 19-25 issue of Radio Times A regular on the global awards circuit, Blanchett has received major prizes from all over the world, including two Oscars, three BAFTAs, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, an Order of Australia, and in France a Chevalier, for her contribution to the arts. Born in Melbourne, Cate started her movie career in Australia but quickly made an international breakthrough in 1998 with one of her first films, the historical drama Elizabeth. By the early 2000s, global audiences knew her from the blockbuster Lord of the Rings series. She later appeared in the Hobbit trilogy. She won great praise and a best supporting Oscar for playing Hollywood great Kate Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator in 2005. In 2013, she won her first best actress Academy Award in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine.
Evening Standard
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Cate Blanchett, keen for career switch, will co-host Serpentine Summer Party 2025
'Supporting our cultural institutions and their power to illuminate the world at large and our place within it is of paramount importance,' Blanchett, fresh from her five-star stage turn in The Seagull at The Barbican, said in a statement. 'I'm honoured to co-chair the Serpentine party and its summer festivities where so many creative forms—architecture, performance, music, science and digital narratives—intersect. To come together around a pavilion created by Marina Tabassum, whose socially driven work particularly in her home country of Bangladesh to meet the challenges faced by Rohingya refugees, is an inspirational opportunity.'
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I'm giving up': Cate Blanchett says she is retiring from acting
Cate Blanchett says that she is 'giving up' acting to do other things 'with [her] life'. In an interview with Radio Times, Blanchett suggested she was uncertain over calling herself an 'actress', saying: 'It's because I'm giving up.' She added: 'My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life'. Blanchett was speaking as BBC Radio 4 prepared to air her first major radio play, an adaptation of Wallace Shawn's play The Fever about a woman who undergoes a political and spiritual awakening. Blanchett has just completed a five-week run on stage as Arkadina in Chekhov's The Seagull at London's Barbican theatre, and her most recent major film role, opposite Michael Fassbender as a married spy in the Steven Soderbergh-directed thiller Black Bag, was released in March. Blanchett has won numerous awards for her acting, including two Oscars (best actress for Blue Jasmine in 2014 and best supporting actress for The Aviator in 2005) and two best actress awards at the Venice film festival (for I'm Not There in 2007 and Tár in 2022). She recently finished working on a new film directed by Jim Jarmusch, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, which is due for release in 2025 (though was surprisingly omitted from the recent announcement of the lineup for the Cannes film festival), and is currently working on Alpha Gang, a sci-fi comedy directed by David and Nathan Zellner, as both actor and producer. She is also attached (again as both actor and producer) through her production company Dirty Films to The Champions, a film to be directed by Ben Stiller. Despite her high levels of activity, Blanchett says in the interview that she is uncomfortable with her position as a celebrity actor. 'I've always felt like I'm on the periphery of things, so I'm always surprised when I belong anywhere. I go with curiosity into whatever environment that I'm in, not expecting to be accepted or welcomed. I've spent a lifetime getting comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable.' She added: 'No one is more boring to me than myself and I find other people much more interesting. I find myself profoundly dull.'
