An Armchair for the Orchestra – The Parisian theater reviews site » The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, direction and scenography by Stéphane Braunschweig, Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Paris

© Simon Gosselin

ƒƒ article from Nathalie Tambutet

Second staging by Stéphane Braunschweig of the play “ The Seagull », his latest creation as director of the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe. A scenographic rereading and rewriting twenty-three years after its first production as director of the Théâtre de Strasbourg. His wish is to reveal the vision of the future that Chekhov perceived at the end of the 19th century and that this play reveals.

A full-length white blind delimits the stage to a game strip. Two characters appear: Macha, a grieving woman and Medvedenko, a schoolteacher, who complains about his meager salary. He is in love with Macha. Two others join them. They are Konstantin Treplev, playwright, son of a famous actress, in love with Nina, and Sorine, Konstantin's uncle, retired and owner of the estate. Sorine is dying of boredom in the countryside. Konstantin, for his part, explains that his play displeases his mother because she is not the main actress. He describes his mother as a self-centered woman and laments her affair with a famous writer, Trigorin. They are gathered here to attend Treplev's first play.

The blind rises and reveals a scene of the end of the world: a dry, bare lake, without water or any more life on earth.

Nina's narration is a metaphor for the laying bare of Treplev's soul. She depicts her distress in the face of a mother centered on herself, her own celebrity, and who flirts with the unspeakable. Indeed, her lover, who is younger than her, reminds Treplev of her own powerlessness to be seen and recognized by her own mother, who only mixes with celebrities. He is nothing in his mother's eyes, compared to these personalities. He is looking for recognition from his mother.

Treplev's play lucidly describes the state of this young man and the desert world in which he lives. A young man left to his own devices. It is also the reflection of a youth left behind, of adults preoccupied with themselves, without a vision of the future for their descendants. Beings caught in the immediacy of the present and the diktat to enjoy life at the expense of the consequences on others and the future of the world.

This small piece in the big one announces the psychological collapse of Treplev due to a world where impossible loves reign, unthinkable mourning, destinies thwarted by greed, the impoverishment of wage labor, loneliness by inability to bond with people only concerned about themselves. The complaint is constantly present in these characters without any other solution. And yet, Treplev states that art is a way against the dehumanization and drying up of the world but on condition that art is not the pale reflection of people's reality but transmits messages, dreams, anticipations.

This piece surprises with its contemporaneity. It reflects our current world: everyone connected with their phone, with themselves, the quest for eternal valued youth denying death but also that of immediate satisfaction in order to enjoy their life. No worries about the future we leave behind. A world that dries up souls, when the meaning of life no longer has any meaning other than satisfaction and self-realization, when the quest for materialism and self dehumanizes. A world where the objectification of beings predominates, like the character of Nina, the seagull. She is the symbol of freedom and dreams but Nina will break her wings following her greed for success. Three destinies of 19th century women: a duped young woman, a liberated woman and an unmarried woman. The status of women is brought to the forefront.

It is interesting to bring this small piece to the fore, a metaphor for human distress and the end of the world, to restore its place to humanizing sublimation and symbolization.

An enriching reread.

© Simon Gosselin

The Seagull d'Anton Tchekhov

Direction and scenography: Stéphane Braunschweig

Avec Sharif Andoura, Jean-Baptiste Anoumon, Boutaïna El Fekkak, Denis Eyriey, Thierry Paret, Ève Pereur, Lamya Regragui Muzio, Chloé Réjon, Jules Sagot, Jean-Philippe Vidal

Translation: André Markowicz, Françoise Morvan

Artistic collaboration: Anne-Françoise Benhamou

Collaboration on scenography: Alexandre de Dardel

Costumes : Thibault Vancraenenbroeck

Light Marion Hewlett

Son : Xavier Jacquot

Makeup, hairstyles: Émilie Vuez

Assistant director: Jean Massé

Creation of the decor: Construction workshop of the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe

Duration 2h20

From November 7 to December 22, 2024

Tuesday to Saturday at 8 p.m.

Sunday at 3 p.m.

Break on Mondays

Performances with English surtitles on November 9, 16, 23, 30 and December 7, 14, 21

Performances with audio description on Thursday December 5 and Sunday December 8

Odeon Theater of Europe

Odeon Square

75006 Paris

Reservations : [email protected]

Such. : 01 44 85 40 40

www.theatre-odeon.eu