I was delighted to see this production because the cast are fomer ALRA students. Their school suddenly closed earlier this year leaving the students course-less although some have continued at Rose Bruford. Bridge House Theatre offered to stage what is effectively a graduate show with these ten students in the hope that it might act as a springboard and help them to get representation.

Luke Adamson’s adaptation is very fluid and reduces the running time to 85 minutes without interval. It is now set in the 1920s (lovely vintage frocks) and apparently moved to Britain although this is confusingly inconsistent. Characters talk of going to London (instead of Moscow) but also of moving to Europe, for example. Masha (Leila Wetton – suitably brittle) snorts cocaine instead of swigging alcohol. There are a lot of references to Shaw and Wilde as having written plays to aspire and quips about experimental theatre. These are good ideas but nothing feels definite – which may be deliberate but it doesn’t make for clear story telling.

Gender blind casting gives us two male characters played by women which reminded me faintly of school plays at the girls’ schools I attended and taught in. Alice Gibson is however good as the impoverished, opportunist school teacher who marries Masha – not exactly a marriage made in heaven. Gibson brings nervous, diffident, insensitivity to the role and it works.  And Sally Toynton  is feistily strong as Dorn, the doctor who strides about being businesslike but of course there are cross currents in his relationships.

Best of all – and it’s a pretty good cast on the whole – is Anna Cameron-Mowat as Sorin. She lives and breathes the part, communicating with her eyes and every other part of her body. She does age and illness well too. It’s a terrific performance. But, again, there is confusion. The part is shared with Lewis Tidy who is presumably male as Chekhov’s Sorin originally was. At one point someone addresses Sorin with Cameron-Mowat in the role as “Mrs Sorin.” Thereafter she is often referred to as “he” and addressed as “uncle” which is a bit distracting. Gender fluidity is all very well but this is not Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Cameron-Mowat is very clearly female.  At one point her character wears a glitzy dress and a wedding-style hat. The text should be adjusted to the sex of whoever is playing the part at each performance.

The Bridge House playing space is quite small and very simple. Adamson and his team (designer: Verity Johnson) make thoughtful use of it for this production using pallets covered with boards to make low level rostra and a red velvet curtain to suggest an opulent room. The all-important lake is conjured in the imagination by characters gazing into the corners of the space.

It’s always a pleasure to go to the Bridge House (excellent tea at the bar downstairs and surprisingly comfortable seating in the theatre) which runs a reliably innovative and interesting programme. This version of The Seagull is a novel take on a familiar play which certainly asks questions and sets you thinking. And I really hope it acts as a launch-pad for these actors.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/the-seagull/