All the critics seem to agree that Ian Rickson's decision to end his tenure at the Royal Court by reviving Chekhov's classic drama of frustrated ambition and love was a good one.
Paul Taylor in the Independent echoes our Michael Billington and Charles Spencer in the Telegraph, pointing out that "Konstantin, Chekhov's aspiring young writer, is fired by a Royal Court-like mission ... to usher in the Theatre of the Future."
In the Times, Benedict Nightingale detects a similarly contemporary feel: "As directed by Rickson," he writes, "The Seagull is as fresh as any modern play dealing with the emptiness of fame and the nature of creative art".
Nightingale also feels that despite the presence of film and TV stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Art Malik, "there's no opportunistic casting here, least of all from Scott Thomas, whose performance as the diva, Arkadina, combines elegance and charisma with a narcissism as selfish as it's serene".
Spencer is also united with Michael Billington in his admiration of Christopher Hampton's new translation which, he says, "breaks your heart even as you laugh out loud".
Another admirer of Scott Thomas's "magnificent" performance, Taylor also has high praise for Crook's "touchingly truthful" portrayal of the strugglin young writer Konstantin. Spencer agrees that his is "the most moving Konstantin since Simon Russell Beale" with his "painful thinness, feverish energy and those haunted, hollow eyes".
One minor quibble interrrupts what is otherwise a united chorus of approval: Taylor isn't quite convinced by Chiwetel Ejiofor's Trigorin, Konstantin's rival in love and art: "he seems far too straightforward and honourable" for such a self-conscious and calculating character.
Charles Spencer's summary, however, seems more representative: "There isn't a single weak link in a show that must surely be West End bound".
