Theater Review: The Seagull Takes Flight

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

The UW School of Drama

New adaptation by Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Pevear

Directed by Sebastián Bravo Montenegro

January 29 - February 8, 2026

Purchase Tickets here $10-$23

Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse

4045 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105

The Seagull Takes Flight

Review by Kindle Carpp

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is a four-act drama set on a rural Russian estate, where artistic ambition, romantic longing, and quiet despair intertwine. The play centers on unrequited love, the desire for recognition, and the emotional costs of creative life, threads that weave together into a work that feels at once expansive and deeply personal.

Despite its large ensemble, The Seagull unfolds as an intimate story. The narrative orbits four central figures: Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplev, Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya, Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina, and Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin. Their relationships, artistic, romantic, and familial, form the emotional backbone of the play.

Konstantin, Arkadina’s only son, struggles to find his voice as a writer while living in the shadow of his celebrated mother and her accomplished lover. Arkadina is a renowned Russian actress whose confidence and vanity dominate every room she enters. Trigorin, her lover, is a successful writer of fiction, quiet, observant, and relentlessly focused on his own creative pursuits. Nina, a hopeful romantic, is in love with Konstantin and dreams of becoming an actress herself, yearning for both love and artistic fulfillment.

Surrounding them is a richly textured supporting cast: Sorin, Arkadina’s brother and owner of the estate; Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn, a charming local doctor and habitual object of affection; Masha, dressed perpetually in black and numbing her heartbreak with alcohol; Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko, a poor schoolteacher devoted to Masha; Paulina Andryevna, trapped in a loveless marriage; and Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev, the long-suffering manager of Sorin’s estate. Even the household staff, Yakov, along with the cook and maid, contribute to the sense of a living, breathing world.

The play famously begins with a play-within-a-play, immediately drawing the audience into Chekhov’s layered examination of art and ego. For all its philosophical weight, the production does not always take itself too seriously. Masha’s dramatic histrionics lighten the mood, her exaggerated despair landing with sharp precision.

The overall acting is so strong that it is easy to be swept away by the story, carried along by the many intersecting storylines and character dynamics. Each character takes themselves utterly seriously, a choice that heightens both the humor and the tragedy.

Jaris Owens delivers a compelling antihero as Konstantin. His slow unraveling, first in the early acts and again later in the play, is profoundly haunting. There is a vulnerability to his performance that makes Konstantin’s anguish deeply affecting. Owens’s portrayal even draws unexpected sympathy toward Arkadina through the pain of their fractured relationship.

Marena Kleinpeter commands the stage as Arkadina, fully convincing as a famous actress accustomed to admiration. Her facial expressions alone communicate volumes; irritation, disdain, and wounded pride ripple through her every movement. She rarely needs words to assert her dominance. Kleinpete’s performance also elicits unexpected sympathy for Konstantin, particularly through Arkadina’s harsh dismissal of her own son.

Taylor McWilliams-Woods showcases remarkable range as Nina. She moves seamlessly from a naïve young woman, fearful yet devoted, to a flirtatious ingénue stepping into dangerous territory, and finally to a jaded, broken figure shaped by disappointment and loss. The span of life she embodies is vast, and she inhabits each stage with sincerity and emotional truth.

Sebastian Wang’s Trigorin is notably restrained. His performance is subtle and inward, never loud or grand, yet quietly revealing. He portrays a man who is gently narcissistic, absorbed almost entirely in himself and his single-minded pursuit of writing, and whose calm detachment proves quietly devastating.

The design elements beautifully support the production. Scenic designer Porter Lance creates a lush, atmospheric set that evokes the expansive grounds of a country estate. The foliage feels alive, and the use of the silver curtain, particularly in the final scene, is strikingly dramatic and emotionally resonant.

Lighting designer Marley Keith uses light on the curtain to suggest shifts in time of day with elegant simplicity, enhancing the mood without drawing attention away from the actors. Costume designer Nour Afifi’s work feels authentically late 19th century, grounding the production firmly in its historical setting. Sound designer Gideon Hall’s subtle use of water sounds throughout the outdoor scenes adds a quiet, immersive ambiance.

For a story filled with longing, frustration, and missed connections, this production of The Seagull feels remarkably alive, an intimate portrait of people reaching for love, art, and meaning, even as it slips just beyond their grasp.Like its namesake, The Seagull soars briefly, falters painfully, and remains unforgettable.