Last weekend had been to Anton Chekhov's play 'Sea Gull' staged at Rangashankara by RangaYana of Mysore directed by noted Theatre director Baharul Islam. Anton Chekhov is a noted and acclaimed playwright who lived in the latter part of 19th century. 'Sea Gull' is regarded as one of his finest works. Play is translated to Kannada by Dr.Hema PattanaShetti. I was a bit tired after a day of cricket near office, still managed to go for the play in the evening. There wasent much rush, still the auditorium was 3/4 full, still i had bought a ticket in advance via Madhur (lots of thanks to him) who stays very close to Rangashankara. Not being conscintious enough i could not get tickets to last week's comedy 'Heegadre Hege?'.

The play revolves around the life and troubles of four theatrical and literature personalities living in a cozy small village resting on the banks of a peaceful river full of SeaGulls somewhere in Russia. Cast, first, Irina is a famous actress who mostly cares for a luxurious, pompus way of living. Her begginer writer, playwright son Treplyov. Budding actress Nina whos is not well looked after by her step mother. Finally Trigorin, a famous, young, acclaimed writer whos always discontent and contemplating on why people and press dont recognize him on par with the likes of Tolstoy.



Treplyv has a bad start to his writing career with his plays getting caustic reviews but none closest and dearest around him show any concern for him. Especially his own mother Irina always makes fun of him instead of trying to help him out. Irina always would compare Treplyv to Trigorin to mock and insult him. Irina would have lots of fondness for Trigorin. Once Treplyv writes a play and stages it where he lead casts Nina, his childhood sweetheart. The play is ridiculed by his mother and Trigorin who interrupt it many times in the middle, which sets Treplyv into a state of depression. He once tries to kill himself by shooting. To add to his woes Nina being a ardent fan of Trigorin's writings falls in love with him after metting him for the first time. Nina flees with Trigorin to Moscow. Irina too sets off to the big city with her aging brother leaving her hapless son impoverish in depression caused by contempt hurled at him from all sides. In the course of time unfaithful Trigorin abandones Nina in pursuit of other women leaving her in a state of mental unrest. Finally after two years when everybody arrives at the village for a gathering, poor Treplyv who would have spent much of prime life time in depression unbale to bear the ignorance just shoots and commits suacide.

As we see, the play in itself doesnt have a strong storyline nor does it have a central figure. Its not a flaw but actually its meant to be that way. Anton Chekhov intended the play to focus on lifestyle and conflicting mentalities of four artists and writers by taking a leaf out of thier lives. Its not intended to be a typical melodrama of those days. Hence the play assumes a tag of being far ahead of its time. When it was first staged in Russia it was written off by melodrama loving public of that time as rubbish, but later it recieved high critical acclaim and today its regarded as one of the best plays penned by a Russian playwrigh during the pre-modern era.

Iam still perplexed why the play was named 'Sea Gull'. May be just because the events in the play took place amidst the scerenity a place full of SeaGulls around or is there something else to it. During the play i also saw noted Theatre personnality, teacher, actress and columnist Laxmi Chandrashekar who was amongst the audiance sitting in row next to me, taking down notes during the play that would probably help her in her review of the play that would hit a newspaper's art segment soon.