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The Seagull

 
Stephanie Green Review by Stephanie Green 4 Published: 19 Oct 2025 Lyceum Theatre Show Dates: 9 Oct 2025-1 Nov 2025

An inspired choice by James Brining for his inaugural production as artistic director of the Royal Lyceum, Chekhov’s The Seagull marks the beginnings of modern theatre. The elegant adaptation by Mike Poulton is accessible and light-footed, aiding the subtle balance of comedy and pathos that is the hallmark of this production.

An involving production that bodes well for the Lyceum’s new era.

John Bett, playing Sorin, the owner of the summer estate where the play is set, is one of the highlights of the show. His handling of complaints makes us laugh sympathetically. But Caroline Quentin is undoubtedly the star of the show, playing Arkadina, a narcissistic actress past her prime, with just enough hamminess to be funny without losing credibility. Constantly posing and looking round for effect, she also betrays her insecurities. She can be both cruel to her son, Konstantin (or Kostya), talking over the play he wants to impress her with, but later demonstrating her love in the moving scene where she changes the bandages on his head wound.

This ambivalence is also successfully demonstrated by Lorn Macdonald as Kostya, both scornful of his mother and desperate for her approbation with his unintentionally ghastly play, searching for ‘new forms’. Likewise his volatility means he is unable to take rejection by Nina resulting in suicide. Trigorin’s explanation of his writing process, as an obsession, will resonate with would-be writers. Dyfan Dwyfor, rather too low-key before this, at last comes alive.

Other characters make pleasing cameos: Michael Dylan as Medvedenko, the neglected schoolteacher; Steven McNicoll as Shamrayev, the blustering estate manager; and Irene Allan as Polina, his bullied wife, who is having an affair with Dr Dorn but is now neglected. Sadly, Forbes Masson as Dorn is so unpleasant it’s hard to believe he was once a seducer.

Full plaudits to Tallulah Greive as Masha, with her deadpan ‘whatever’ delivery, a precursor of goth, all in black. Harmony Rose-Bremner as Nina contrasts the necessary overacting in Kostya’s play with naivety and hero-worship for Trigorin, the famous writer. However, her last encounter with Kostya is so overwrought it’s garbled.

The sets by Colin Richmond and Anna Kelsey are not entirely successful. The opening scene by the lake is cluttered with reeds that look more like rye. There are also strange water sound effects - real lakes are silent. However, the sparse interior that follows is spacious, with the distressed look of an old country house. The last set, reduced to a small central space (perhaps to suggest Kostya’s confined life as a writer), is again too cluttered.

Overall, this is an involving, though not overwhelming, production, and it bodes well for the Lyceum’s new era.

Amir Nisi

Stephanie Green

Stephanie Green has reviewed Theatre and Dance in Edinburgh since 2011 but previously travelled widely, mainly in Eastern Europe and Russia, writing about puppetry. She also studied shadow puppetry and sacred dance in Bali. In the 1970s, she trained as a puppeteer at the Little Angel, London and later worked at the alternative In the Heart of the Beast Mask and Puppet Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. After training at the Place, the London School of Contemporary Dance, in her 20s she then gave up dancing until starting again in her 60s just for fun. She has recently danced in a community group with Barrowland Ballet (at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2013), Oceanallover and at the South Bank, London as part of the Festival of the Silver Age. She is also a novelist, playwright and poet. www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/

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The Blurb:

A fading actress. A restless writer. A family's country estate simmering with desire, ambition, and regret.

Chekhov's much-loved masterpiece soars anew in a darkly comic reimagining by Mike Poulton, with beloved stage and screen star Caroline Quentin leading a stellar ensemble.

A once-celebrated actress, Arkadina (Quentin) dominates every room she enters, leaving little chance for anyone else to shine. Her son, the tormented young playwright Konstantin, yearns to escape her shadow, revolutionise theatre, and win the heart of Nina, a luminous young woman with dreams of the stage. But when Nina's gaze turns instead to Arkadina's lover, the celebrated writer Trigorin, egos and passions collide with devastating consequences.

Directed by The Lyceum’s new artistic director, the award-winning James Brining, The Seagull blends sharp-edged comedy and emotionally rich drama into a timeless story of vanity, creative hunger, and the cost of dreams.

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