Friday, 8/24/01
Noon: I’m on a plane sitting in the lot of O'Hare Airport in Chicago, with my good friend Courtney, en route to NYC. Our mission tonight is to camp out for free tickets to "The Seagull" in Central Park. For weeks we’ve planned this trip, monitoring via the internet what the crowd situation was like. We've gone over when we plan to queue up, what we must bring with us in order to be prepared for any kind of weather while camping out. I'm very nervous. Word has it that people have been lining up as early as 6 p.m. Hmmm…so I guess we will too…we’re prepared. We've brought our blankets, umbrellas, seats, etc. Most of our friends and family are concerned for our safety but they just don’t understand…6:35 p.m. All right! We are here, deep in the heart of Central Park. We arrived around 5:45 p.m. and as we walked in, we saw people, people and more people. It seemed like we walked for miles to get to the end of this very, very long line. I’d say that there were maybe 200 people in front of us. Now as I write this there’s already about 75 people behind us! I'm thinking to myself, "Forget about actually meeting Philip Seymour Hoffman, I'll be lucky if I get a ticket to see the freaking play!"
However, a ticket agent walks up to all of us and explains that many of the people in this line are here for tonight’s show, hoping to get stand-by tickets, while the rest of us are camping out for tomorrow night’s show. So I feel better about this.
I notice that we’re surrounded by die-hard actors and drama enthusiasts… I can tell by the conversations around me. They’re discussing various styles of theater, and all sorts of other stuff I know nothing about.
7:30 p.m. All of a sudden, the line starts moving…fast. This is very cool and unexpected. So they’ve obviously got a lot of stand-by tickets to give out. Inside ten minutes, we're at the front of the line staring into the eyes of the ticket agent. I say, "We’re here for tomorrow’s show," and she says, "Okay, but I’ve got two tickets here if you want to see the show tonight." Courtney and I look at each other, then at the ticket lady, and we say in unison, "Why the hell not?!" Woohoo! Another Woohoo!
We’re so utterly and completely stoked that we don’t have to spend the night in the park! I can’t believe how easy that was! We planned to stay here for 18 hours and instead we only waited in line for 2 hours! Not bad. Oh my God we were so drunk with happiness and relief. Better yet, our seats were great. We were center stage…perfect view of all the actors' facial expressions, etc. This theater was beautiful. It was a small open-air ampitheater, and the evening was gorgeous. The sky was totally clear, there was a bright moon (as mentioned in Konstantine’s play), and there was this slight cool breeze that kept the audience comfortable and rustled through the trees on the stage. It seemed like everything was just perfect.
So, as for the play itself…it started out with Mike Nichols (director) welcoming us to the theater, asking us politely to turn off our cell phones, etc. Then he said, "Imagine that it's 1890 (or whatever year it was), and you’re living in Russia…despite the fact that we’re directly under the flight path to the nearest airport!"
Now, I understand that The Seagull was meant to be a comedy, and this particular translation made that abundantly clear. There was almost some slapstick going on with Christopher Walken’s character (he was excellent!) and Meryl Streep's cartwheel. The dialogue was slightly different from the version I read. It was a little more modernized I guess, but not so much that you lost your sense of when and where you were supposed to be, in terms of setting.
I have to say that I really loved this play when I read it a couple of weeks ago. I imagined this cast as the characters, and laughed out loud during the funny scenes and was moved by the not-so-funny scenes. But as a newcomer to the theater-going population, I was truly amazed at seeing this play live on stage. There’s absolutely nothing like it. It is so much more powerful, brilliant…literally every character, every scene comes to life (duh!).
In my humble opinion this play was cast perfectly. Walken was hysterical… Marsha Gay Harden was excellent in her role of Masha, the bitter woman who was a perfect foil to all the "artists" in the story. She was the only one who very directly and bluntly verbalized her misery. A nice contrast to everyone else, who expressed their sorrow through their "art." All the symbolism and foreshadowing was so powerful here, like the dead seagull, not only representing Konstantine’s doom, but Nina's as well…and maybe even representing everyone in the story…who suffered an unrequited love, an unmanifested dream, etc.
I'm sorry but Phil totally rocked in this play. A lot of critics said that he was whiney, etc. But I thought he portrayed the character perfectly! Konstantine was basically a spoiled loser! He was miserable! Even after his life took a turn for the better, he was still miserable. He stole every scene he appeared in…the audience was riveted every time. He made you feel like you were right there with him…sometimes laughing at him, and sometimes totally feeling sorry for him! Okay, not that this matters, but oh my dear…he's even more handsome in real life than he is onscreen. It’s a bit overwhelming. Meryl shined of course, and I thought Natalie Portman was great too…she was playing a star-struck 19-year old…sometimes I feel like the critics forget things like that when they pan these actors.
One thing that I didn’t really catch when I read the play, but was unmistakeable when seeing it on stage, was this relationship between Konstantine and his mother, Arkedina. It was so unhealthy, bordering on Oedipal. They fought not like mother and son, but like lovers. It was kind of creepy. I hope I don’t sound stupid or anything but I was wondering why Chekov introduced that factor into the story…was it his allusion to traditional Greek tragedy? Anyway, I found that fascinating.
I also wonder if the actors' performances change or evolve over the weeks that the play runs. It just seemed like there were so many spontaneous, even improvised "moments." It seemed so magical!
When the cast came out to take their bows at the finish, all the actors were smiling and looked so proud…all except for Phil! Strangely, he was the only one who had this really serious, stern look on his face—poor guy! (Was he still in character?) What an actor though…when he does his thing…the whole audience hushes, and takes notice of him. He’s so…real!
Well all in all this play really cracked me up with its many hysterical moments…but so many times, especially at the end, it would suddenly shock me. What a sad, wonderful play! I highly recommend reading it, and then I highly recommend seeing it. I imagine that no matter who is in the cast, it will move anyone who sees it. I understand that it will go on broadway, not for free, but I believe it’s definitely worth seeing. Hey, I paid $175 for a plane ticket out there to see The Seagull…and I don’t regret it!
-- Lee
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