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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Kansas City’s first snow of the new year preceded the opening of the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. The winter winds on the walk into the Main Street theater were the perfect introduction for this ultimately woeful tale of unrequited love.

Seems just the stuff for a comedy, eh?

Tom Stoppard’s 1997 adaption of Chekhov’s 1895 play adds a certain English nuance and modern update to the Imperial Russian sensibility of the play. Director Karen Paisley set a challenging task for her cast and crew, and they, for the most part, rose to the occasion. Set on a wide, rough-hewn stage against a crisp blue-and-white, tree-patterned background, the four acts unfold into a tangled mesh of intrigue.

The story takes place at the lakeside estate of Sorin (Richard Alan Nichols), an ailing, retired government employee. His nephew Kostantin (Coleman Crenshaw) has written a play, one that he believes exemplifies a new type of theater. His muse and love interest is Nina (Ashlee LaPine), a sheltered, innocent girl from the neighboring estate who aspires to be a famous actress.

Everyone gathers for the premiere, including Kostantin’s mother, Arkadina (Cheryl Weaver), a successful actress from Moscow, and her lover, Trigorin (Forrest Attaway), a famous author.

Also present are the residents and guests of the estate: the manager of the estate (Alan Tilson), his wife, Polina (Nancy Marcy), their daughter Masha (Jessica Franz), the school teacher Medvedenko (Chris Roady), Dr. Dorn (Robert Gibby Brand), and Yakov, the hired hand (Donovan Kidd). It is soon apparent that almost everyone is in love with someone who isn’t in love with them—Masha with Kostanin, Medvendeko with Masha, Polina with Dorn—except perhaps Sorin, whose constant lament is that he never married and never became a “man of letters.”

The play-within-the-play is interrupted by Arkadina’s snide comments and Konstantin stops the show. His shaky self-esteem as a writer and his dissatisfaction with current trends, as well as his jealousy over Trigorin’s literary success and relationship with Arkadina, establish the character’s fragile emotional state.

Nina, for her part, is enthralled by the glamorous lives of Arkadina and Trigorin, a fascination that lures her from her home and Kostantin. The exchange between her and Trigorin as he explains the difficulty of writing, as well as its insistent draw, is one of the finest moments of the play. It also seems to describe Chekhov’s pursuit of his own fickle mistress: the writing life and its often paltry rewards.

In the final act, set in a winter storm two years later, the results of the characters’ misguided devotions are drawn forth. Whether stoic or suffering, no one gets what they want or appreciates what they have.

While not necessarily what the average American audience-member would consider a comedy, there are many fine, subtle lines and some outstanding deliveries, notably from Brand, Nichols, and Weaver.

Weaver especially, costumed in elaborate ensembles of beading and lace, exuded a careful glamor and chilly sophistication, well aware of her womanly power. Her pleading scenes with both Coleman and Attaway were brilliantly raw and spontaneously funny.

The stage was at times cluttered with furniture and props, making some of the movement around them unnecessarily complicated. The aural experience was likewise muddled with sound effects and music often overshadowing the dialogue. But Shannon Smith’s costuming was nicely done, from Arkadina’s fancy frocks to the delicate detailing in Nina’s outfits.

REVIEW:
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
The Seagull
Runs through January 29 (reviewed Thursday, January 12, 2011)
3614 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
For more information go to www.metkc.org or call 816-569-3226

Top Photo: MET's The Seagull (Coleman Crenshaw and Cheryl Weaver)

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.