After having directed Oncle Vania last fall at Duceppe, Yves Desgagnés tackles another Chekhov play.
The Thé&âtre du nouveau monde’s much anticipated production of La mouette finally opened last week; its story is one many can relate to, but most hope to never personally see to its end (the story; not the production.)
Full of dreams of a better place, an amazing artistic career or a passionate love, these melancholic characters live for tomorrow.
The story lets these dreams unfold, only to make us discover that na’ve hopes can sometimes put us in a worse place than we started from. Through these disappointed characters, we see our own wings break.
Some describe this play as showing us the cruelty of life, but I think this depressing story tells us why we have consciences and why those who get where they want to be work hard at it.
La mouette presents an almost patronizing, predictable narrative, but still one that is well worth shutting up for and listening to.
Story and playwriting aside, however, the production could have been better. Although the translation kept the colourful poetry, certain aspects of this particular production, especially in the first act, made the play seem to drag on.
There were moments where the heaviness of the delivered lines should have palpably hung in the air and made the audience feel melancholy themselves; but often, they lacked the inflection they needed to accomplish the task.
Nina (Catherine Trudeau), although very passionate in her monologues, at times seemed to push her na’ve character to the point of the unnatural, making it difficult to empathize with her.
Her abandoned yet still-determined ex-lover, Tr
