This weekend, the Brandeis Theater Company put on a simultaneously comedic and heartbreaking performance of Anton Chekhov's masterpiece, The Seagull. The play was originally written in Russian and first staged in 1896. This weekend, it was directed by Shira Milikowsky, performed mainly by third-year Masters of Fine Arts students and a few undergraduates.

The material for this performance was newly translated by Brandeis' own Ryan McKittrick, an assistant professor of Theater Arts, and Julia Smeliansky, an administrative director at the American Repertory Theater and at the Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. This new translation did not sound as though it was written in the late 19th century, a fact that McKittrick accounted for in an interview with BrandeisNOW. McKittrick said that the translation is "not so contemporary it sounds like it happened yesterday, but it's not antiquated." The new modernized translation breathed some new life into the 117-year-old play and made it more accessible for today's audience.

The play features an artistic cast of characters, including both writers and actors, living together for the summer on an estate in the countryside, where elderly and sickly Pyotr Sorin, played by Alex Jacobs, MFA '14, a friend of some, family of others, is staying. The play follows these characters as they wrestle with their relationships with themselves as well as others, as they try to find their places in the world.

Sara Schoch, MFA '14, portraying the overly dramatic and self-obsessed ex-actress Irina, was able to swing between drastically different emotions with ease, and use passionate body movement to make her character come to life. Eddie Shields, MFA '14 showed the complexity of the tortured, unloved and self-loathing Kostantin. Shields perfectly embodied his character's struggles and progression into what looked like insanity. Toward the end of the performance, Shield's representation of Konstantin's insanity was so frightening and realistic that I jumped a few times in my seat at his loud and anguished outbursts filled with pain.

The real genius of the show was that it was able to discuss such dark and weighty subjects such as suicide, loss of innocence, and heartbreak without being unbearably depressing. In fact, the performance was humorous. At many instances during the play the audience laughed out loud as the performance made fun of theatrical conventions, and characters made fools of themselves. Comical one-liners such as when Masha, played by Laura Jo Trexler, MFA '14, a cynical woman haunted by her unrequited love, says sincerely, "When I get married I won't have time to think about love," speckled the show and received laughs from the crowd. These funny instances lightened up the performances and story lines.

The play overtly alludes to the symbolism of the seagull again and again, but each mention added nuance to the symbol. The first mention of the seagull was when young and na??ve Nina says to her boyfriend, "I am drawn here to the lake like a seagull."

This romantic image is later thwarted when Konstantin kills a seagull, places it at his girlfriend's feet and reflects that he may kill himself just as he has killed the seagull. This scene foreshadows Konstantin's attempt and failure to kill himself, and later, his successful suicide. At the end, one of the characters stuffs Konstantin's seagull, reflecting the characters' struggles throughout the play to fill their lives with the meaning it lacks.

The set was very minimal. I thought the blank backdrop with the projected lights was a surprising choice. The setting of the play in the beautiful countryside would have been the perfect opportunity for a scenic background but the company interestingly decided to forgo a backdrop altogether. Instead, the cast successfully contrasted between the outdoor estate by the lake and the inside of a residence with the use of large translucent curtains.

This play was definitely not a slave to convention as Konstantin worries his own play may be. The Seagull was like nothing that I had ever seen. I look forward to the Brandeis Theater Company continuing its practice of adapting classic plays to entertain contemporary audiences.