By Michael Buzzelli
Everyone in Chekhov’s “Seagull” is stuck in a miasma of unrequited love, swirling around in their own emotions, drowning in them.
Medvedendko (Evan Vines), the low paid teacher, loves Masha (Maxine Coltin). Masha loves Constantine (Phoebe Lloyd), a frustrated playwright. Constantine loves Nina (Julia Rocha), an actress. Nina loves Trigorin (Brett Mack), a famous author. Constantine’s mother, Arkadina (Lisa Velten Smith) is in love with Trigorin.
Meanwhile, Masha’s mother, Polina (Gwendolyn Kelso) loves the local doctor, Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn (Daniel Krell).
All of these lovelorn characters meet and interact a country estate owned by Sorin (Ken Bolden), Arkadina’s brother.
It may sound soapy to modern ears, but this adaptation of “The Seagull,” simply retitled, “Seagull” transcends the melodrama and full drama with vodka-soaked wit.
Arkadina (Lisa Velten Smith) berates her daughter Constantine (Phoebe Lloyd) for histrionics. Velten Smith is amazing as the narcissistic, aging actress, who believes she can still play the part of an ingénue. Arkadina traps herself in a relationship with Trigorin, even though she knows he doesn’t love her back, and Velten Smith carries all the sadness and rage inside, ready to burst with roiling emotions. It’s a powerful performance.
Lloyd is able to match Velten Smith in a no-holds-barred verbal smackdown. It’s a mother/daughter battle of epic proportions. Lloyd is a strong Constantine who is riddled with self-doubt and suicidal tendencies.
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Rocha gets some fine moments on the stage, literally and figuratively, when she is the solo star of a play-within-a-play, reciting poetry on a long-dead earth in the far future.
Mack hands in a terrific performance as Trigorin.
Despite the fact that their are ten characters fighting for stage time, each cast member gets the spotlight. Bolden’s Sorin drops delightful bon mots as he rails against death. Krell, playing Sorin’s doctor, seems to have no use for his patient. Nor is he interested in the woman who pursues him. For a character with little to no emotion, Krell fills him with depth.
Smart, tailored costumes by Damian E. Dominguez adorn all of the actors, Velten Smith’s gowns are especially stunning.
The pastoral setting, an octagonal pergola with flowing diaphanous drapes overlooking the lake on the Shadyside Campus of Chatham University, is filled with bucolic beauty.
Anton Chekhov admits that there’s not much dramatic action, but the playwright saw “The Seagull” as a comedy, a dark, subversive comedy with tragic consequences. This adaptation has some witty, wry moments excellently parlayed by the superb cast.
Director Joanie Schultz filters the story through a queer lens, and it works brilliantly. The language is simple, but elegant.
In a world that continues to stifle LGBTQ+ voices, “Seagull” stands triumphant. Another reminder that all art is political and Quantum doesn’t back down to the rising tide of intolerance.
-MB
“The Seagull” runs from July 25-August 17, 2025, alongside Anne Putnam Mallinson ’61 Memorial Pond, on the campus of Chatham University. For tickets and additional information, click here.
