A no-frills ‘Seagull’ on stage in Athens
A no-frills «Seagull» will be staged for the last time at Stage H of the 260 Pireos venue tonight. Budapest’s Krekator Theater has presented Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece without sets, costumes or lights, as part of the 2007 Athens Festival. The production marked a landmark for the Hungarian theater company. Since its opening in 2003, it has traveled around Europe and has won the critics over. Even from the rehearsals, the troupe strove for a new and original reading of the «The Seagull.» «Every play, every production, needs a different approach,» claims director Arpad Schilling, who does not give many interviews. «The first important step with ‘The Seagull’ was to analyze it. For months, we did nothing but discuss Chekhov’s play with the actors. We then isolated ourselves in a house on a mountain and improvized for 10 days, so as to comprehend its mise-en-scene. I believe that work never ends. Actors must continue to seek the deeper meaning in the characters they play.» Shilling’s theater is physical, baring the characters and putting both the actors and the audience through a test. Schilling only keeps the essence of the text, uses the stage in unconventional ways and always uses live music. Every Krekator production is different, introducing a new style and not part of any tried technique. «There is no specific style or technique for me,» says Shilling. «I don’t want people to see my work and say: ‘This is Schilling’s work.’ In other words, I don’t want the audience to have any predisposition about what they are about to see when they hear a performance is mine.» For the Hungarian director, «The Seagull» is no social drama. «It is about the strategies some people follow in their lives and the consequences of those strategies. Chekhov describes daily life with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. He reveals human nature without mercy, with blunt irony. All the characters want to satisfy their desires, their egos. It is that syndrome that Chekhov describes, not the story. Seeing a specific message in the play would be over-simplifying it. Real teachers do not convey messages, they follow their object from a distance without reaching moral conclusions.» Krekator is considered one of Hungary’s, as well as Europe’s, major theater companies. The name Krekator means the chalk circle and symbolizes a circle that comprises a piece of human existence, life’s fleeting element and its constant rebirth.
