Theatre / Theatre review
Review: The Three Seagulls, Bristol Old Vic
If you like theatre, go to a graduate show. Not because they’re (necessarily) good but because it’s true, live, drama. With more actors trained every year, and fewer acting jobs, plus more and more fame for those who can make it – graduate shows have an almost gladiatorial feel. A battle to the (financial) death.
The Three Seagulls is raw drama, but only on the meta level. With 11 actors playing four parts all in an evening and knowing that those young men and women will soon be entering the cruel arena of professional theatre, it’s impossible not to play casting agent. Thumbs up for one, thumbs down for another.
So, who gets bloodied and hard-won glory?
is needed now More than ever
From a difficult and cliche character, Tessa Wong winkles out an intricate, enjoyable, and comic Irina Arkadia. She grabs the hackneyed stereotype of melodramatic actor mother and pins it to the wall, demanding more comedy, more tragedy and more complexity than you would have first imagined. Think Joanna Lumley meets the sister from Fleabag.
(Left to right) Emma Hadley-Leonard as Masha, Jake Kenny-Byrne as Konstantin, Lionelle Nsarhaza as Masha – photo by Craig Fuller
Michael Drake and Theo Spofforth compete against one another through Thigorin, but both manage to pull together a funny but tragic creature full of uncaring predatory pathetic-ness. Think Dylan Moran from Blackbooks mixed with Matt Hancock.
Somehow Charlie Hall as Shamrayev managed to poke his posh pink trousers through the mix and take an honourable mention. While he has no need to battle with an entire character to himself, he reconstitutes the lost art of comic relief. And I, for one, can’t get enough.
Graduation shows are hard. They’re hard to write, perform, set and they’re hard to review.
Worse, post-covid theatre somehow feels both new-fangled and old all at the same time. An actual live show is automatically odd, with people on a stage. It makes a review feel petty and small in the face of such a big moment. But I am petty and small, so review we must.
Much of the post-covid oddness comes from the sparsity. So, few audience members, half their face empty with cloth. The dazzling space at Bristol Old Vic doesn’t just look empty, it sounds empty too.
And somehow, The Three Seagulls manages its own oddness but not through sparsity – instead of through richness and breath. Inspired by Chekhov and stuck with the enormity and dynamism that brings, and now presented out into a post-covid audience who aren’t keen for change – it’s a scary combination.
Sadly, the show never quite gets beyond its own limits, or its own lack of limits. With so many actors to showcase, and a script devised by the company, comes so many different ideas that are each spoken but none pressed. Clever moments are suggested and then allowed to drop, as if the company is a little ashamed to say anything too strongly.
The devised script is self-aware about the expansive ambition of youth but yet gaily asks for its own share. Like much theatre created by those not yet dominated by that cruel mistress ‘reality’, it’s thematic and aspirational even if it isn’t brave.
With some stellar performances and climatic moments, we pull through in the end. But, just like that needy little orphan of Dicken’s fame – I just wanted some more.
The Three Seagulls is playing at Bristol Old Vic from July 6 to 10. For more information, see: bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/the-three-seagulls.
Main photo by Craig Fuller
Read more: Bristol Old Vic announces Autumn/Winter Season 2021/22
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