The set reflected this, as through out the first scene the lake was the predominant feature of the set, with the trees obscuring it from view. The backdrop made the lake look like it was going on forever, and it looked dark and foreboding, as is if sucked away any chance of excitement. The fact the lake went around the stage gave to the idea of enclosure, and looked as if the lake trapped you in it. The fact that Martha was the first character to speak set the tone of the play, as she was dressed in black gothic costume, and it initiated the plays genre as being melancholy right from the start of the action.
Sorin also wonders why he goes on living. He and Dorn debate the quality of their respective lives. Sorin sympathizes with Konstantin because he observes Konstantin struggling to fulfil goals like being a writer and a lover that Sorin himself once held as his own goals. Sorin describes the title of a story about him as "The Man Who Wanted." Sorin cannot figure out the meaning of his life. He spent most of it working as a magistrate and he does not know why or how that came to happen. "It just happened," he says. Sorin never had anything that he set out to get. To Sorin, a life without fulfilled goals is an empty meaningless life.
Konstantin and Nina also pursue meaning in their lives, believing they will find their identity through their work. Nina longs to become an actress and Konstantin, a writer. Both believe that accomplishing their goals will give more meaning and opportunity to their lives. Both associate a meaningful life with the admiration of others, and the presence of Arkadina and Trigorin echo to them their defeat in the fulfilment of a purposeful life. Nina changes her mind about this in Act Four. After she settles into a mediocre career, she comes to terms with a new belief that endurance is nobler than success.
The design aim was to establish time, place mood and atmosphere though out the play and even in the summer, where the season was set using bird song and a leaf gobo, as well as costume such as straw hats and light summer jackets. It also set time of day, in the sense that the lighting changed from rose pink and amber to violet and blue steal to depict early evening, and then onto dark blue towards the end of the scene, with a star cloth, and moonlight used on the trees.
I felt the overall effect was good as you didn’t notice the light changing too much, however the play’s aspect of realism would have been better carried off if the actors didn; breask the fourth wall, or pause as they did. One particular moment I felt seemed unnatural was at the end of the first scene, ans Tregorim and Nina froze for a few seconds, and then turned to helop change set, and it reminded me it was a play again, and did not helo me to suspend my disbelief achekov would have meant the play to do.
Another element not so good was that there were doors in the backdrop, and the lake was supposed to be a symbol of entrapment and solidarity, and yet characters were walking through it.
Chekhov also used weather to create the tone for his stories and in his plays. The weather reflects the characters' state of mind and foreshadows upcoming events. For instance, before Nina returns to visit Konstantin the weather is stormy and windy as if the storm conjured up Nina and brought her to the estate. Storms usually reflect a change in temperature and likewise, weather is a signal for change in The Seagull.
A major theme that the weather picked up on was that of existential crises. Martha, Sorin, Konstantin, and Trigorin have existential crises in The Seagull. Martha hates her life and does not know why she goes on living a boring, unhappy life. She sniffs snuff and drinks heavily to hide from her pain and disappointment. Sorin encounters something of a mid-life crisis though his life is more than half over. He questions what he did with his life and regrets his lack of attempting to meet his goals in youth. Konstantin lacks direction in his life. He thinks he is talented and creative, possible of greatness, but does not have a precise goal in mind or point to make. He allows his ambition to overwhelm his ability. His loss of Nina's love, his failure at impressing his mother and his life in the shadow of Trigorin's success eat away at his spirit and will to live.
Trigorin has an existential crisis when he becomes excited in the prospect of an affair with young Nina. Trigorin was not actively questioning his life or his life choices at the beginning of the play and seemed content. But Nina's interest in his work and in a relationship with him forces him to think about his life and its present meaning. Nina represents a second chance at youth to Trigorin. He selfishly pleads with Arkadina to allow him to be with Nina so that he can relive his youth that was spent seriously writing, not frolicking with young girls. Trigorin wonders what he missed in life as a youth because of his writing and what else he missed. Nina's love for Trigorin opens his eyes and creates a new sense of awareness about himself that he had not experienced before meeting Nina. Once he recognizes his loss in the past, Trigorin cannot believe in a future that does not include the risk of a new experience. His life in the past loses meaning and his future threatens to only have meaning if he attempts to have an affair with Nina.
The weather reflected this, and the main crises occurred during the second half in the winter, with the most obvious being when Nina comes back, sullen forlorn and mad, wearing black clothing similar to Martha’s attire, symbolising her new hate of life, and when Konstantin shoots himself. However Trigorin leaves Arkadina in the summer, however it was inside, and the lighting was less clear and bright then in the garden.
I feel the compass theatre managed to portray the effects of weather and climate very well, and I particularly ,liked the design of the second scene, where it snowed, as the snow was falling behind the drapes, and there was a noise of wind in the background, that started fairly loud, but was slowly quietened so you remembered it there but it didn’t intrude on the action, I remember one instant I particularly liked, where Konstantin came in and opened the window, and the noise of the wind immediately picked up, I think it was a clever effect, and it made you think it was real for a second or too, and was very well timed.
The theme of unrequited long was in the Seagull ironically the structural glue that sticks most of the characters in The Seagull together. Medvedenko loves Martha, but Martha loves Konstantin. Konstantin in turn was in love with Nina whom loves him back briefly but then falls madly in love with Trigorin. Arkadina loves Trigorin but loses his affections to Nina. loves Dorn though she is married to . Dorn sometimes shares an affection for Paullina, but his apathy for her appears to have begun before the play started and continues to fade during the course of the play. The couples and the unrequited lovers resonate and reflect off of one another, serving as parallels and mirrors of each other in the play. They represent different stages of life and of love. The clearest parallel involves Paullina and Martha. Martha's unrequited love for Konstantin and decision to marry Medvedenko seems to mirror her mother's unhappy marriage to Shamrayev and her unrequited love for Dorn.
The lighting seemed to reflect the mood of the piece when two lovers were together, often alone, and also the stages and events happening between them. The lighting was only subtle, however for instance when Trigorin and Nina together an undertone of rose was used, showing the beginning of something. When Arkadina and Trigorin had a slightly passionate scene, the lights were actually directed on the red curtains at the rear of the stage, with red symbolising both passion, and anger, with Arkadina’s anger and jealousy of Nina, leaving her to try and seduce Trigorin back to her.
