The Sea-Gull

The Seagull is Anton Chekhov’s sharply-observed tragicomedy about art, love, and families. A group gathers at a country estate on a summer evening for the performance of a new play. Most of them yearn for what they do not have: Irina, the famous actress, chases her fading youth; her son, the playwright Konstantin, wants to escape his mother’s orbit; her lover, the successful but mediocre writer Trigorin, bemoans the genius that eludes him; and Nina, the naive girlfriend of Konstantin, dreams of a glamorous life on the stage. As the play unfolds, the characters pursue their own agendas, frustrating the others’ ambitions but rarely achieving their own, in a bleakly humorous look at human folly. Famous for its clever dialogue and insightful characterization, The Seagull is one of Chekhov’s best-known plays, and is essential reading for anyone interested in theater or Russian literature.