STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre
"The Seagull." By Anton Chehov. At the New Theatre Tins production offers the very rare experience of seeing united a greatplay, a great producer, and a cast in which the great are in only a slight minority to the extremely talented. Of The Seagull's greatness do not suppose that there can be much question ; it is an early work and by no means faultless (the last act would have been more adroitly planned, and the sentiment would have been more controlled, if its author had had more experience), but it is nevertheless one of the most consistently delightful and satisfying plays of the last fifty years, and indeed probably of all time. Above all, it is superb material for acting, both in its scenes of action, such as that in which Arcadina reclaims Trigorin for herself from his sudden infatuation for Nina, and equally when the play's movement has been temporarily checked, for instance in the scene when S.orin's guests sit in the moonlight' on the terrace over the lake, exchanging reminiscences and listening to the music drift across the water. In the popular estimate Mr. Konnsarjevsky is certainly a great producer. I must confess that I have almost invariably thought his Shake- spearean ventures misguided, but as a producer of Chehov he has no better. He is a romantic who is infinitely responsive to the spirit of a play such as this, and both in its view of the play as a whole and in attention to detail his direction is throughout wonderfully astute and expressive. What is more, he has designed as well the enchanting scenery and costumes which enhance the effect of this production—I have seen nothing more lovely in the theatre than his setting of the outdoor stage above the lake for the first act. The cast, which- is composed almost entirely of celebrities, has in Miss Edith Evans, Miss Ashcroft and Mr. Gielgud the three best actors of Chehov that the modern theatre possesses. All three of them give admirable performances which, if this- production receives the success which is its due, they will be forced to repeat until after the present year is out.
Every detail in The Seagull is in its place so important to the development of the play, so demands individual attention and so repays the trouble of studying it, that it is no surrender of a sense of proportion to begin by appraising the performances in the smaller parts. It is difficult to imagine how any of them could have been bettered. Mr. Leon Quarterruaine, who made so excellent a Gayef in The Cherry Orchard a few yearr ago, was equally good as the bland philosophical doctor Dorn, Mr. George Devine and Miss Clare Harris provided clear and vigorous portraits of Sorin's dicta- torial manager Shantrayef and his wife, Mr. Frederick Lloyd was superb as Sorin himself, Mr. Ivor Barnard played the schoolmaster Medvedenko with devoted gloom, and Miss Martita Hunt gave yet another delightful performance as his unhappy wife. I cannot recall another production in which the subsidiary parts have all been so admirably performed. And the same, with one exception and one slight reservation, may be said of the performances in the larger parts. Ten years ago Mr. Gielgud played Treplef. No doubt he could have made a success of it again, but he chose to surrender the part to Mr. Stephen Haggard, who sacrificed some of its effect by mak- ing it a little monotonous and a little priggish, and to take for himself the much less remunerative Trigorin, who apart from being the least pleasant is the least well drawn character in the play. His Trigorin looked a little too young and a little too sedate, but the performance as a whole was as sensitive and as subtle as one would expect from Mr. Gielgud. Miss Ashcroft has never seemed better than she did here as Nina ; she is charming as the child who in the first act recites Constantin's immature play, pathetic in her gay surrender to the worldly Trigorin a little later, and genuinely tragic when she returns in the final scene, a failure on the stage and, though cruelly disillusioned, still desperately nursing a love for Trigorin which he had never intended to return. Bat it is more than anyone else's ..Miss Evans'. evening. Arcadina is a part that might have been written for her, and she plays it as no one else could do. Her perfor- mance as the vain, greedy, scheming, sentimental actress is the most superb piece of acting :that has been seen in London
Previous page
