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Essay / Theater Analysis of the Play “Seagull” - 958
At the beginning of October, I went to see a play “Seagull” at the LYNN Redgrave Theater which was being staged as a cultural product. The original play was written by one of my favorite Russian authors, Anton Chekhov, and that's why I chose to go see it. I've read the play before and it was interesting for me to see an Anglo-Irish adaptation. When I first entered the theater, I noticed that the set and the entire play itself were small and modest. The set itself was a mix of proscenium stage and black box stage. It can be classified as a proscenium because the set had a backstage area through which the actors entered, but could not be seen by the audience. And as a black box because audience arrangements could be placed around it, as the seats were movable and not permanent, and the space was light and dark. The decor immediately gave the impression that it was a living room with unpretentious brown wood and metal furniture, green-blue chairs and a sofa. A bench in the corner of the stage, massive white columns and green bushes all around indicated that the play was set in the countryside. The whole production was very delayed, and that's how I imagined Chekhov's “Seagull”. The audience seats were divided into three locations with ten to twelve rows around the stage, and you could sit wherever you found an empty seat. So I chose the most practical and comfortable seat to watch the play. Once the play started, everything fell into darkness except the stage, where the lighting was focused, but not on the sides of the stage or on the audience, so you knew where your focus should go. After about half an hour, the light became brighter and illuminated the sides of the stage, where on the left, in the middle of the paper, women who represented the citizens of the countryside and wore more casual clothes and I didn't have to walk and talk like that. Overall, just looking at how each character was dressed in the room gave you an idea of their personality and social status. Finally, the staging of the play was impressive. In my opinion, everything was well organized. From start to finish, I felt like I had stepped into the “Victorian era” period. The actors were well coordinated; they knew where to go and what to say. The costumes were exactly for that era and each character's personality. Overall, I really enjoyed the piece. Even though there were some differences from the original, it was still interesting to see other people's perceptions of the same piece. Additionally, the experience met my expectations. I definitely recommend everyone to watch it.