Chicago Storefront Theatre Soars With It's Adaptation of Chekhov's "The Seagull"

                                       

One would think an 1895 dramatic comedy concerning acutely depressed people forming a dysfunctional rural Russian family would be impertinent today. The Artistic Home, with their captivating presentation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull that brings the play to life with reinvigorated relevance, ensures that such thinking is false.This production, with director Cody Estle and assistant director Jack Bourgeois at the helm, accomplishes this by highlighting the play’s universal themes like struggles with disapproving parents, frustration with one’s situation in life and tragic unrequited love and loss. The direction's emphasis on relating clearly and accessibly such popular motifs makes this theatre’s depiction of the acclaimed author’s commentary on life and humanity’s vulnerability and fragility moving.

Lending to this company's poignant portrayal of Chekhov’s premiere dramatic work is the cast’s character renderings. While Laura Lapidus’ dead pan, week-old soda flat Masha and Kaiser Ahmed’s one-dimensional take on her pitiful husband Medvedenko left much to be desired, Brian McKnight proves likeable as Dorn the doctor. Kathy Scambiaterra shined with her silly, bittersweet embodiment of Prima Donna mother Arkadina, leaving onlookers hysterical with her physical comedy and quips (like her "Hamlet, speak no more" response to her angsty offspring). Scot West encompasses a magnificently understated literary superstar Trigorin, holding back just enough in the soliloquy where he unloads on Nina that one feels the passion simmering beneath the surface, like molten magma at Mauna Loa's volcanic core, he represses in keeping up appearances.

 Larry Baldacci results a loveable Sorin, Arkadina’s fading aged brother, truly reminiscent of an endearing elderly uncle. Brookelyn Hébert, believable as a naïve lass lusting for fame and the urbane turned jilted struggling starlet, comprises a competent Nina. Stealing the show, however, is Julian Hester as Konstantin - the terminally brooding young playwright desperately enamored of flighty, unattainable avifauna-esque Nina. With obvious outstanding talent, illustrated with admirable choices such as the pause as if having regrets before Konstantin destroys his scripts, supplemented by undeniable boyish charm, Hester compels as the protagonist tortured artist son.

Jeffrey Kmiec's stage design further propels this Seagull envisioning. The quaint theatre is construed arena style with several rows of bench seating directly across from each other on either side of the main stage. Chiefly the arrangement worked well, notwithstanding that observing playgoers opposite you sometimes distracts, and such configuration proves a unique challenge for the performers who must constantly shift to not face one part of the audience too long. The ivory gauze curtains suspended upstage and downstage, suggesting freshly-laundered linens dancing in warm breezes, permits dynamic entrances and exits, adds simple elegance to the environment and provides an innovative way to define space. As well, the wooden canopy frame enveloping the principal playing area allows for solid structure and translation to rural Imperial Russia during the late 1800s; so much so that murmurs about it recalling another show of similar setting, Fiddler on the Roof, and humming “If I Were a Rich Man" were overheard.

The rugged, sylvan industrial lighting conceptualized by Claire Sangster dimly illuminates the drama in a way that beautifully captures its sentiment. Furthermore, antique glassware adorning the dining table and other aspects of Mary O’Dowd’s prop design contribute to an appealing late 19^th-century ambience for the piece. In continuation, Sarah Jo White’s well-crafted costuming suits the play’s time and tone and exhibits commendable attention to detail, as Arkadina and the sadder-but-wiser actress Nina’s ornately-bustled frocks clearly distinguishing them from the rest displays. Christopher LaPorte’s sound design, as the faint strings of Konstantin’s melancholy violin serenades evinces, is fitting the storytelling and the intimate venue's acoustics.

Troubadour Ed Sheeran's song "Little Bird” encompasses a raw, stirring representation of the devastating delicacy of love, relationships and mortality. The Artistic Home’s imagination of Chekhov’s oeuvre – also embracing tenderly powerful imagery and metaphor of deceased fowl – comparably represents similar ubiquitous threads like the fleetingness of innocence, affinity and existence in a genuine, relatable fashion. This is why the Artistic Home’s staging works, by taking this dramatic classic and making it and its message as relevant to today as Sheeran's tune. All considered, this production of one of Russia’s most renowned dramatist’s first play was most endearing and affecting; and proves The Artistic Home honest in claiming it offers “Chicago storefront theatre at its best.” Do not miss the opportunity to see this gripping, soaring reimagining of Chekhov and catch The Seagull before it migrates south.