no89,5
the seagull
TŠEHHOV/NORMET
Ingo Normet’s production based on Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull”, a co-operation of NO99 and the Theatre School, premieres was on 23 November. Actors are students of the new class of Theatre School.
Director Ingo Normet:
Should we attempt to explain why Chekhov’s "The Seagull" has been played for over one hundred years all over the world, from America to Japan, in many languages and theatre languages, the task would be both easy and difficult. It is easy to say that "The Seagull" contains strong archetypal conflicts, love and jealousy, suppression and resistance of people, the irreconcilable opposition between professional art and the arrival of the new, the play has joy and it has death. It is difficult to say why exactly this play? But why Mozart, why Chopin, among hundreds of their contemporary musicians? Chekhov has managed to unravel extremely complicated issues with elegant lightness, create superb roles. For the students, playing in “The Seagull” is a wonderful opportunity to learn the paradoxes of human behaviour. And it is an excellent opportunity for the audience to see the coming of a new theatre generation and their attitudes.
Director Ingo Normet also produced a new translation of the play, trying to avoid the usual rocks of translating Russian drama where the content is smothered by ethnography. According to the director he relied in his translation on Mati Unt’s experience who translated Chekhov’s “Orchard” for Vanemuine Theatre, and on the dramatist Martin Crimp’s new English version.