Film Review - NT Live: The Seagull
Images courtesy of Sharmill Films.
There’s something weird about realising you’re watching theatre…
NT Live, something that has apparently been alive and well since 2009, has filmed another one of their famed west-end productions and it’s not exactly what you’d think. Now, I wouldn’t have been mad to stumble into the cinema and watch a livestream of the cretin’s dumpster-diving at Covehithe, Great Britain’s fastest-eroding stretch of coastline. Alas the dreaded metaphor, or perhaps analogy , has bested me once again, leaving me subject to yet another of Anton Chekhov’s classic stage plays, once again reimagined for a 21st-century audience.
Yet another is facetious, dear reader, for I know not what I am talking about in theatre. Rather, I’ll use familiar phrases to help me fit into the hipster-clique currently discussing Emilia Clarke, a name I certainly know and not another vaguely unfamiliar top-tier star who I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I am not familiar with. I love these people! And they clearly love me, because the barriers for entry with this one was by far the lowest of any other upper-class affair that I’ve seen for this fine publication. At The Seagull, I felt welcome.
Kindly abated by director Jamie Lloyd, who brought Anya Reiss’ adaptation of Chekhov’s classic… Now I’m confused again… All I know is that this is a play, it’s almost in the role of baby’s first deconstruction with how painstakingly visual the layers of theatre are laid bare in this claustrophobic box, and I very much enjoyed learning more about the format while also polishing up my critic credentials. When I say ‘baby’s-first’, I personally mean no insult with the phrase, it is just what I mean by a starting point. Somewhere novices can come and have themes laid on a bit more bluntly than you’d see at the Opera, but also with enough character of its own to not get lost in the cliches and familiarities of the stage. In the latter, I can certainly say that The Seagull still has enough of its own snooty personality to threaten the uninitiated.
Set inside what is plainly described as a plywood box, the actors take turns transitioning in and out of scenes by slinking in and out of the shadows of the stage. Nobody ever specifically leaves the scene, they just sink into the background of it, waiting for their next line with a lifelessness that robbed me of every bit of comfort I had going into my third recorded stage play watch of the year. When they’re not actively in the scene, are they frozen? Are they just waiting? Are they purposely stilted for the sake of furthering the absurdness of this entire image? I think it’s the last one, and I like it a lot.
The Seagull is screening in cinemas from Saturday November 5th. For tickets and more info, click here.