A lively production punctuated by touches of vaudeville and the grotesque.
The company’s fervor and skill is impressive.
Forakis has all but declared war on the naturalism and psychological realism that is the bedrock of much of what we’ve come to think of in this country as modern theatre, and The Seagull is perhaps the perfect vessel to target to fire a shot across its bow, since Stanislavsky’s famous 1898 Moscow production was the flagship that in many ways started it all.
With graceful, determined, exuberant gestures, the characters seem to bounce across the stage. On this Dr. Seuss-ian landscape, there’s no room for naturalism, and humor crackles through slapstick physical comedy: quick gestures, deft asides, and (sometimes alarmingly) flexible facial expressions.
Using sight gags, crude sexual innuendos, Commedia pratfalls and an elaborate, consistent semaphore of over-the-top gestures, Forakis wrings the text like a dishrag, forcing the play’s humor to the true source of all comedy: pain.
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Set Design: Lee Savage Costume Design: Alixandra Gage Englund Lighting Design: Stephen Petrilli Sound Design and Music: Robert Murphy Video: S. Katy Tucker Properties Master: Alexandra Morton Stage Manager: Irena Cumbow Assistant Stage Manager: Jenny Logico Assistant Director: Tracy C. Francis Assistant Set Designer: Oliver Weson Postcard and Front Cover Art: Kate Katigbak Wig Design: Daniel Koye Press: Sam Rudy Media Relations
