That's how Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull begins. Her son, who also wants to be a writer, has written a play, and family and friends gather to watch a performance. Masha (Elisabeth Moss) is the hilariously goth daughter of the farm managers, who pines after Konstantin while rebuffing the attention of schoolteacher Medvenko (Michael Zegen).Įveryone wants something that they’re not getting: inspiration, success, fame, love, adoration.A famous actress brings her lover, a well-known writer, to the family estate. Orbiting around these four is a group of extended family members and friends who heighten the drama. He shoots a seagull and lays it at Nina’s feet, declaring he is the seagull. The vain, needy and manipulative Irina vies for Boris’ attention with dresses and flirtation and flat-out domination, while Kostantin acts out in increasingly violent ways. The foursome becomes hopelessly entangled in a knot of jealousy, affection and betrayal, as Boris and Nina are drawn to each other.
Her emotionally tortured son Konstantin (Billy Howle), desperately jealous of Boris’ success, tries in vain to court his mother’s attention, pounding away at the piano and staging elaborate DIY plays in the forest starring his crush, their neighbor, Nina (Saoirse Ronan). With Sorin seemingly on the mend, Irina settles in for a summer in the country. She arrives with her lover, the much younger writer Boris (Corey Stoll). Ailing Sorin (Brian Dennehy) summons his sister, storied actress Irina (Annette Bening), to his bedside. In the countryside outside of Moscow, a family gathers at a sprawling wooded estate.
With the help of playwright and screenwriter Stephen Karam, director Michael Mayer has brought a new cinematic adaptation to the screen, imbuing the tale of complicated family dynamics, creation and heartbreak with an unprecedented sense of intimacy. It was considered a disaster until Konstantin Stanislavsky directed and performed a version of it two years later, and Chekov’s work endures to this day. When Anton Chekhov’s debut play “The Seagull” premiered in 1896, its revolutionary naturalism rattled audiences and critics.
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