A new Seagull lands in Regent’s Park. Director Matthew Dunster has lured Chekhov’s classic into a leafy corner of north London to see if it needs an upgrade. The new script, by yuppie-baiting playwright Torben Betts, is casual, slangy and sometimes gauche. Favourite moments have been struck out including the great opening line, ‘Why do you always wear black?’ And Betts decides to make Chekhov’s characters swear. ‘Bollocks’, ‘piss off’. I don’t know Russian but I’m sure Chekhov didn’t need coarse language to portray coarse souls.
The outside staging has been jazzed up too. A clunking great mirror hangs over the playing area like a bit of broken satellite. Angled at 45 degrees, it reflects a bird’s-eye view of the stage towards the stalls. Very odd but it works. It helps amplify the sound too. And sound is a big thing in this show.
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