The Seagull

About the show

It’s a story of unrequited love. Konstantin, the son of the great actress Arkadina, is in love with Nina, an aspiring actress who is in turn in love with Boris, an author. It’s a tragedy that borders on comedy and will end with a shot. Before that, all these characters will be tormented by their desires and overcome by their impotence, until everything seems pointless… With help from the Centro Dramático Nacional de Madrid, Chela De Ferrari is presenting La gaviota for the first time at the Avignon Festival with a cast consisting almost entirely of blind and visually impaired actors. The Peruvian director continues to infuse new life into the great works of theatre with the help of performers who define themselves as disabled. By introducing the audience to the life experience of the cast, she is shedding new light on Chéjov’s work.

Note from the author and director

Chéjov’s characters, tormented by unfulfilled desires and unable to see the reality they live in, stumble through life searching for a lost and unattainable paradise. The blind actors of La gaviota are able to see their characters with humour and compassion.

La gaviota is one of the great works of the 20th century, a staple in the Western dramatic repertoire.

We present a free version of Chéjov’s work, and we seek to express it through a cast composed of a group of blind or low-vision actors. Our goal is to bring the viewer closer to the reality of the blind through their own stories and those of their characters.

At the foot of a lake, in a country house away from the world, a young and eager playwright is getting ready to present his first play: an apocalyptic monologue that seeks to break the norms of conventional theatre, and which he also wrote for an aspiring actress he’s in love with. In the audience is his mother, a renowned actress who navigates the traditional spheres of art, with her partner, a celebrated writer, and his brother, the owner of the house hosting the group. Also present are: a school teacher, the village doctor and the landowner of the estate, and his wife and daughter. Things don’t turn out as expected. Neither the play, nor the dancing or love songs, nor the games and conversations by the lake, will be able to conceal the anxiety and helplessness that brings them together.

Navigating between comedy and tragedy, Chéjov presents characters who are tormented by their desires, hopelessly in love with the wrong person, afflicted by a feeling of their own uselessness, holding ambitions that exceed their ability, and always longing for a lost paradise. Chekhov fills his characters with dreams, aspirations and desires. The profound truth of these aspirations is something we hope connects us all.

La gaviota deals with theatre and the prowess it demands of artists. This includes the actors and actresses who embody this version. The prowess that brings them together may be greater than that faced by most artists, but so are the possibilities they offer to reinterpret the work and say something new.

Chela De Ferrari