Cast fails to convey Chekhov’s meaning in CSN’s ‘Seagull’

The theater department at College of Southern Nevada is doing exactly what it should in choosing its productions. The program exists to teach students the craft of theater, and that cannot be accomplished by strictly concentrating on contemporary, known scripts by recognizable playwrights.

Introducing classes, and the community, to Chekhov is a key part of accomplishing that task because the playwright introduced innovative ideas that are still in use today.

Anton Chekhov wrote four major plays during his lifetime, and “The Seagull” is considered to be his masterpiece, a classic, and should be an important part of the learning process. This production offered by CSN, translated in 1973 by Jean-Claude Van Italie, is directed by Sarah O’Connell.

The play is an ensemble piece, and one of the first to initiate the idea of “subtext.” In other words much of the dialogue doesn’t address the underlying truth of the characters. An actor must dig, and dig deep, to avoid presenting superficial melodramatic interpretations – the very thing Chekhov was attempting to eliminate. I fear most of the cast was not up to this task.

The performances lacked transitions. Hurt to anger happened without thought; laughter came out of nowhere. So much of the dialogue was delivered with overwrought emphasis placed on so many words that meaning became lost.

Oscar Antonio Damasca, playing the celebrated writer Boris Trigorin, comes closest to accomplishing what Chekhov intended. Damasca’s subtlety in his choice of delivery and his internalization of intentions before speaking a line are brought to bear not only in tone of voice, but in his actions and body language, so that we understand his emotional conflicts.

In her role of Mashaff – Masha in Chekhov’s original script – Aubrey Williams also delivers a fairly nuanced performance. We see her choosing her words with care and using body language to project the truth as she pines for the love she will never have.

Meagan Moser has flashes of believability as the unfeeling, self-absorbed actress Irina Arkadina, as does Leonardo Dominguez in the opening scenes with his role of Konstantin Triplyev, Irina’s artistically tortured son.

The faltering here is a typical problem with translated works, a mistake we find in many productions of Shakespeare. Something gets lost in the translation. Actors allow the language to get in the way and deliver stilted, overstated performances rather than three-dimensional characters we can relate to; they “act” instead of “be.” As Shakespeare himself beseeched in Act 3 of “Hamlet”: “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc’d it to you,

trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.” In today’s English: Deliver it in realistic tones.

The technical aspects of this production are superb. During intermission, between the second and third acts, Justin Barisonek’s set moves from lovely summer exterior to a fully realized interior. Megan Ann Richardson’s costumes and all that go with them are true to the period piece. The women’s dresses and wigs are beautifully done. Travis C. Richardson lights it all with gorgeous hues to enhance place, time and mood. Add in the well-thought sound design by Cindy Frei, and the production values are a sight to behold.