Review: THE SEAGULL at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

We have our stage, a brightly lit, lush lakeside park, which contains a Second Stage – a bit of curtains elevated on a bank, ready for players. The first people we encounter are Masha, a land manager’s daughter dressed head to toe in black and Medvedenko, the spoony schoolteacher who finds her fascinating, if a tad morbid. The first words from his besotted lips are to inquire about her dark attire. “I am in mourning for my life,” returns the girl. “I’m unhappy.”

The play is not even two minutes into its tale, but could this description be of any story other than Anton Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL?

Thus we have welcomed two miserable people, fruitlessly in love (alas, only one with the other) who will shortly be joined by about four or five more equally depressed and love-stymied individuals, young and old. We have actors and writers, doctors, retired judges and estate help, all bumping moodily up against each other. And somehow in its near cosmic despair, all of this is actually quite funny.

Indeed it is, and director Bruce Katzman - veteran director of Chekhov and author of ACTING CHEKHOV - knows this all too well. For his production of THE SEAGULL at the Odyssey Theatre, Katzman deploys a mostly solid cast (two of whom are also producers), a talented technical team and a vision. The results are plenty engaging. When you’re smart about it, as Katzman’s company is, this seriocomic gloom sizzles. Featuring a beautiful set by Carlo Maghirang and lovely costumes by Eva Zapata, the production’s aesthetics are equally up to par.  

Basically, THE SEAGULL assembles the bored and the blocked, those desperate to make some sort of aesthetic impression with their lives (or with their art), and others who bemoan the fact that they never will. We’ve met Brianna Brian’s bitterly gloomy Masha. Soon to arrive – we learn – are two actresses who carry with them the weight of great things: legendary performer Arkadina (played by Sasha Alexander) and young Nina (Cece Kelly) who will make her stage debut al fresco in the high concept play written by Arkadina’s son Treplev (Parker Sack). Treplev is also as in love with his ingenue as poor Masha is in love with him. The action takes place on the estate of Arkadina’s aging brother, Sorin (Joe Hulser)

Arkadina’s lover, the celebrated writer Trigorin (James Tupper) whose solitary stand-offishness is catnip to…well..to anyone of the female sex. Also present is the formerly rakish Dr Dorn (Will Dixon) who is sleeping with Masha’s mother, Polina (Carolyn Crotty). Dixon’s seen-it-all-Dorn is perhaps the play’s least despondent character. When he asks of Masha, “What can I do, my poor sweetheart? What can I do?” you get the sense that the good doctor really looking for an answer. As opposed to the more narcissistic Arkadina whose default is to ask the same question but with a different emphasis: “What can I do?”

In the Nina-Treplev-Trigorin-Arkadina pairings, Chekhov has essentially crafted a perfect… well…not a love triangle, exactly; more like a cock-eyed love square. Nina is desperate to take the stage; Arkadina professes to be too bored, but of course she must have the attention and can’t stop pulling focus. Treplev wants his work to break through, while the already celebrated Trigorin couldn’t give two rubles about his fame, but is relit by Nina’s passion. Everyone is in love – or falling out of love – with everybody else. Katzman’s program note promises a production infused with “ten tons of love” and – though none of it’s especially cheerful – he doesn’t disappoint.

So it goes that Sack and Alexander work some oedipal heat into Arkadina tenderly bandaging her son’s head although the heat burns that much hotter as Alexander winds her arms around her lover as she tries to entice Tupper’s Trigorin to leave the estate with her. Trigorin is often played aloof or imperious. Not here, as Tupper gives the man an appealing awkwardness.

Kelly is a convincing Nina, effective at playing an actress with rich enthusiasm but questionable talent (the rendering of Treplev’s oh-so-earnest play is a riot). In Kelly’s performance, the character’s fascination with Trigorin is more credible than the idea that she ever felt anything tender for Treplev. Then again, when you drop a freshly murdered seagull at your girlfriend’s feet as an expression of undying love, you probably shouldn’t expect a lot of affection in return. As events unfold, Sack’s petulance gives way to a depiction of a man dealing with utter helplessness, and the final scene between a damaged Nina and Treplev is appropriately heartbreaking.

Admittedly, it’s been a minute, but southland SEAGULL watchers of a certain age may harken back to the fall of 2007 when Trevor Nunn’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company played UCLA Royce Hall featuring Frances Barber, Gerald Kyd, and Romola Garai with Ian McKellen and William Gaunt sharing the role of Sorin (the production was only a slightly easier ticket than McKellen’s KING LEAR which played in repertory.) About a year later, in September the play appeared on Broadway for the last time with Kristin Scott Thomas, Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, a production directed by Ian Rickson originally produced by Britain’s Royal Court Theatre.

Back to the present, Katzman’s production at the Odyssey takes wing.

THE SEAGULL plays through February 23 at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles.

Photo of the company of THE SEAGULL by Miguel Perez

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