“There’s something enjoyably ironic about Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke’s choice of West End debut,” said Alice Saville in the London Evening Standard. In a modern and intentionally static staging of Chekhov’s The Seagull, she plays the “aspiring-but-untalented” actress Nina, who “beams” with delight when told she could make it in films one day. In real life, of course, it’s Clarke’s screen fame that has helped “pack out” this “uncompromising” production.
Clarke has undeniable charisma, and she’s not the only good thing about the production, staged by “super-director” Jamie Lloyd. Among a uniformly excellent cast, Daniel Monks is “compellingly unlikeable” as Konstantin, the would-be playwright who is obsessed with Nina; and Indira Varma is “mesmerising” as Konstantin’s actress mother, Arkadina.
In Lloyd’s production, Chekhovian naturalism has been banished, said David Benedict in Variety. There are no samovars nor sense of bustling Russian life. Instead, the set is a harshly lit chipboard box; the actors are all similarly dressed and sit in matching plastic chairs.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The thrill of Chekhov is that every character is “rivetingly alive”; yet here, the performances are flattened by a “one-size-fits-all slow, over-deliberate delivery” through microphones.
It is a “maverick” approach that yields mixed results, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. There are times when it feels a bit like “The Seagull With Zombies – mannered, frustrating, both too drawn and drawled out”. But individual scenes are “compelling and powerful”; and the evening overall is “strangely gripping”.
It didn’t grip me, said Clive Davis in The Times. Lloyd used similar aesthetics for his “glorious reinvention” of Cyrano de Bergerac starring James McAvoy. But whereas his “hip-hop Cyrano pulsated with physicality and testosterone”, the mood of “ineffectual ennui” here is just oppressive. With much of the dialogue delivered sotto voce, it feels like a poorly produced radio play. A bold experiment, maybe; but a failed one.
Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton St, SW1Y 4DN until 10 September
-
The Olympic timekeepers keeping the Games on trackUnder the Radar Swiss watchmaking giant Omega has been at the finish line of every Olympic Games for nearly 100 years
-
Will increasing tensions with Iran boil over into war?Today’s Big Question President Donald Trump has recently been threatening the country
-
Corruption: The spy sheikh and the presidentFeature Trump is at the center of another scandal
-
6 exquisite homes with vast acreageFeature Featuring an off-the-grid contemporary home in New Mexico and lakefront farmhouse in Massachusetts
-
Film reviews: ‘Wuthering Heights,’ ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,’ and ‘Sirat’Feature An inconvenient love torments a would-be couple, a gonzo time traveler seeks to save humanity from AI, and a father’s desperate search goes deeply sideways
-
A thrilling foodie city in northern JapanThe Week Recommends The food scene here is ‘unspoilt’ and ‘fun’
-
Tourangelle-style pork with prunes recipeThe Week Recommends This traditional, rustic dish is a French classic
-
Samurai: a ‘blockbuster’ display of Japan’s legendary warriorsThe Week Recommends British Museum show offers a ‘scintillating journey’ through ‘a world of gore, power and artistic beauty’
-
BMW iX3: a ‘revolution’ for the German car brandThe Week Recommends The electric SUV promises a ‘great balance between ride comfort and driving fun’
-
Arcadia: Tom Stoppard’s ‘masterpiece’ makes a ‘triumphant’ returnThe Week Recommends Carrie Cracknell’s revival at the Old Vic ‘grips like a thriller’
-
My Father’s Shadow: a ‘magically nimble’ love letter to LagosThe Week Recommends Akinola Davies Jr’s touching and ‘tender’ tale of two brothers in 1990s Nigeria
