The Seagull

Boris Eifman has retained the main philosophical ideas on art that imbue Chekhov’s The Seagull, but moved the action from a country estate to a ballet studio, where the fashionable choreographer Trigorin clashes with the daring innovator Treplev and the young dancer Zarechnaya competes with prima ballerina Arkadina. The issues of the development of art, the search for new forms, true and deceptive values, love and career are expressed with particular sharpness in this production. The four leads and their individual fates — creative and personal — have taken on an emotional embodiment in movement that expresses Eifman’s view of the Chekhov work.