The Seagull
Directed by: Michael Mayer
Written by: Stephen Karam - Based on the play by Anton Chekov
Starring: Annette Bening, Billy Howle, Corey Stoll, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Brian Dennehy, Jon Tenney, Mare Winningham, Glenn Fleshler, Michael Zegen
Drama - 98 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 May 2018
Written by: Stephen Karam - Based on the play by Anton Chekov
Starring: Annette Bening, Billy Howle, Corey Stoll, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Brian Dennehy, Jon Tenney, Mare Winningham, Glenn Fleshler, Michael Zegen
Drama - 98 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 May 2018
I worked at the library re-shelving and checking out books during college. Whenever I took a break from school reading to read for pleasure, which was far more often than it should have been, I would cherrypick from the return cart. This is how I read David Copperfield and four plays by Anton Chekov. I was not a drama major nor did I have any affinity for the Russian canon (Dostoyevsky did me in earlier), but the volume was appealing enough. Out of the for plays, I remember appreciating The Seagull the most, followed by Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard. I have no idea what the fourth play was. As this was not for a paper or a test, I know I missed out on key themes and the various secrets one only picks up from literature professors. However, pitch a story about unrequited love to a frustrated undergrad and he is probably going to latch onto it with a certain gusto.
I read Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera later on in my twenties; therefore, I could not compare The Seagull to the seminal text on unrequited love. Other than pretentiously attempting to identify with Konstantin, Chekov’s intensely idealistic playwright with better ideas than wordsmithing ability, I never asked deeper questions about the material than, “What the hell is a samovar?” I had no idea The Seagull was not only a masterpiece of modern theater, but a right of passage for actors. None of my friends tried out for college plays; otherwise, I would have figured out almost everyone who reads Chekov in school identifies with Konstantin and those who read him as an adult respond more to the mature Boris Trigorin, the establishment man.
I read Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera later on in my twenties; therefore, I could not compare The Seagull to the seminal text on unrequited love. Other than pretentiously attempting to identify with Konstantin, Chekov’s intensely idealistic playwright with better ideas than wordsmithing ability, I never asked deeper questions about the material than, “What the hell is a samovar?” I had no idea The Seagull was not only a masterpiece of modern theater, but a right of passage for actors. None of my friends tried out for college plays; otherwise, I would have figured out almost everyone who reads Chekov in school identifies with Konstantin and those who read him as an adult respond more to the mature Boris Trigorin, the establishment man.
Adapting one of the world’s most famous plays from the stage for the cinematic experience requires a certain amount of chutzpah. Director Michael Mayer has most of the bona fides to attempt it. He won a Tony Award for directing Spring Awakening, was nominated for Thoroughly Modern Millie, and other highlights include American Idiot and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. His filmography is less impressive, but his debut film, 2004’s A Home at the End of the World, was a worthy start. Mayer lucked out when Annette Bening (Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool) agreed to play Irina, which means the director could then pick any writer and cast he wanted to. Mayer landed playwright Stephen Karam whose show The Humans won a Tony and was twice a finalist for the Drama Pulitzer.
Mayer’s version of The Seagull does not start with Act I, Scene 1. We start at the beginning of Act IV and then flashback which is a shrewd move Mayer credits to producer Tom Hulce. Remember 1984’s giggling Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? That Tom Hulce. Mayer and Karam also chose to use more contemporary language. It’s not 21st century slang, but it’s not 19th century formal either. Perhaps the most freeing example of shooting The Seagull for the screen rather than the stage is the idea of simultaneity. In the theater, you must show one space at a time and in a very sequential order. On screen, Mayer can juggle multiple situations set in different rooms at the same time. While the main cast plays a game in the drawing room, we can watch Konstantin (Billy Howle, Dunkirk) play out the climactic scene with Nina (Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird).
I still do and I do not identify with love lorn Konstantin. He is a wannabe usurper playwright who feels he must burn down the establishment which lacks any literary credibility. It’s all a sham…just entertainment. Everybody that age thinks they’re thinking of these things for the first time. As you get older, you realize Boris Trigorin (Corey Stoll, Gold) is most likely the better thinker and writer. Trigorin is still the ultimate rogue hedonist, but that is no reason to admire Konstantin for trying to pull the rug out from underneath him. What makes Chekov so universal is we also identify a bit with Masha (Elisabeth Moss, High-Rise), the far too practical unrequited love sufferer, and even Doctor Dorn (Jon Tenney). In this loaded cast full of scene chewers, Elisabeth Moss runs laps around everyone else delivering the film's best performance even though Masha is the fourth most important character at best. There is no hero. There is no villain. Everyone is flawed. It’s a worthy lesson to learn in college when the world starts changing from a contrasting black and white to an everything is grey reality.
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