The Seagull (Die Möwe)

German translation by Angela Schanelec

Teacher Semyon loves Masha, but Masha loves Konstantin, who in turn loves Nina. And she loves Trigorin, the writer who loves only himself. Chekhov’s bittersweet comedy The Seagull is about love enduring misfortune and unhappiness, about escaping provincial life, and about the production of art itself. The play reflects Chekhov’s assertion about himself and his fellow writers that: 
“We describe life as it is and stop dead right there. We wouldn't lift a hoof if you lit into us with a whip. We have neither immediate nor remote goals, and there is an emptiness in our souls. We have no politics, we don't believe in revolution, there is no God, we're not afraid of ghosts, and I personally am not even afraid of death or blindness. If you want nothing, hope for nothing, and fear nothing, you cannot be an artist.”
In The Seagull, Chekhov successfully reflects the emotional misery people suffer in their everyday lives and the materially-saturated society which leaves them spiritually running on empty. And the playwright does this in a way that’s both humorous and ridiculous.
Following his highly-acclaimed Deutsches Theater production of Uncle Vanya, Jürgen Gosch gave Chekhov fans another reason to celebrate with his staging of The Seagull. In 2009, it was invited to Berlin’s Theatertreffen – a festival honouring the year’s best German-language theatre productions. The Seagull was also voted “Production of the Year 2009” by the critics’ poll in trade journal Theater Heute (Theatre Today).