THE SEAGULL. To 20 April.

Northampton

THE SEAGULL
by Anton Chekhov, English version by Michael Frayn

Royal Theatre To 20 April 2002
Tues-Sat 7.30 Mat 13 April 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS 01604 624811
Review Timothy Ramsden 11 April

Lively, detailed Chekhov in Northampton, bringing energy and detail to his first major success.Here's a contrast to Rimas Tuminas' Dundee Seagull. Northampton's is a half-hour shorter. Plainer too – if you like, letting the script speak for itself Though Nicola Redmond's Arkadina, a fading leading lady, is over-fussy in her disruption of her son's experimental play.

She's significantly overdressed for the performance. And, later, patrolling her home cigarette in mouth, there's no doubting this theatrical grande dame's calculated self-interest. Re-seducing Trigorin from his attraction to young Nina, she shows herself mistress of more than the grand manner, nuzzling his cheek with softly-whispered flattery. Her urgency over the matter is clear the moment she enters, with suddenly-stopped speech and a suspicious look to the door by which the younger woman's leaving.

There's an intensive fizz to Leah Muller's Nina, in the early innocence of the icing-pink-dressed girl emerging from childhood, and, later, the faded-lilac woman whose desertion by Trigorin and dubious start to her acting career have not crushed a determination to succeed. Konstantin's suicidal despair – emphasised through extensive shredding of his recent oeuvre – is clearly motivated by the final straw of Nina's resolution, which he could never match.

Muller's Nina follows Trigorin's every word with awestruck lack of perception, smilingly unreceptive to Steve Elder's world-weary, downbeat account of the writer's life. It's startling to discover how far Rory Kinnear's Konstantin has travelled from urgent radical towards a similar elegant resignation in the last act.

Simon Godwin's production's also distinguished by Edward de Souza's Sorin, with his nervous bursts of laughter, and Patrick Drury's kindly doctor – the only one to notice the strewn fragments of Konstantin's manuscripts. Alexi Kaye Campbell gives the miserably-married Medvedenko a dignity which makes his departure, ignored by everyone, more touching. Kirsty Bushell is fine as his bored wife, not too far down the unhappy road to alcoholism, letting her frustration out in momentary fury against her obstinate father.

David Farley's set offers harshly unromantic colours, the lake a black disc, his interior deliberately dwarfing the actors with oversize doors and window, suggesting a cramped, restrictive life. Luckily, Godwin and his company allow Chekhov to breathe in this lively, thoughtful production.

Arkadina: Nicola Redmond
Konstantin: Rory Kinnear
Sorin: Edward de Souza
Nina: Leah Muller
Shamrayev: Sion Tudor Owen
Polina: Anita Parry
Masha: Kirsty Bushell
Trigorin: Steve Elder
Dorn: Patrick Drury
Medvedenko: Alexi Kaye Campbell

Director: Simon Godwin
Designer: David Farley
Lighting: Chris Davey
Sound: Liam Matthews
Music/Soundscape: David Lasserman/Lewis Gibson

2002-04-12 12:19:24