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Article: 'Seagull' is still flying high after all these years
- Article from:
- Jerusalem Post
- Article date:
- April 29, 1996
- Author:
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HELEN KAYE
Jerusalem Post
04-29-1996
"READING over my newborn piece, I become convinced once more that I am not a playwright at all," grumbled Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in a letter to a friend.
The play was The Seagull which when it premiered in St. Petersburg in 1896 was practically booed off the stage. Then, two years later, came the production, the actor/director and the theater which went on to become theatrical legend.
Konstantin Stanislavsky directed the play for the Moscow Art Theater and himself played one of the leads, the novelist Trigorin. When the first act ended there was dead silence. The actors paled and started to shake. Olga Knipper, who was playing Nina and who later married ...