CHEKHOV'S REVOLUTIONARY MASTERPIECE SPRINGS TO FRESH LIFE IN A NEW TRANSLATION"I am writing a play. It's a comedy. There are three women's parts, six men's fours, acts, landscapes, a view over a lake; a great deal of conversation about literature, little action, tons of love." - Anton ChekhovThe Seagull is the haunting tale of young love, lost dreams, and broken promise. Its unique cast of incomparable characters echoes dully in a perfect balance – each drawn and repulsed in equal measures through an enchanting and terrifying dance choreographed by Anton Chekhov, the master of Russian theater. It is that rare and precious jewel which perfectly reflects a slice of life, finding those moments which are simultaneously comic and tragic; mortal and divine; eternal and common.Justin Alexander's performance-tested translation captures both the comic and tragic elements of Chekhov's stirring drama. Those wishing to find a text which is both faithful to the play's original Russian and also capable of achieving lyric truth in English will not be disappointed: The characters speak Chekhov's words in another tongue. Reading the great foreign masters requires a perfect translation. Alexander delivers.IN PRAISE OF THE SEAGULL"In the first act, something special started... if you can so dscribe a mood of excitement in the audience that seemed to grow and grow. People walked through the auditorium and corridors with strange faces, looking as if it were their birthday... I swear to God I am not joking." - Audience member on opening night"Chekhov was a quiet and delicate writer whose huge power was always held in restraint. Our theater has to cry out to be heard at all..." - Tennessee Williams"If there's anything that links his plays, it's the absurdity of unrequited love... This is the common, constant impediment to the realization through stage realism of Chekhov's essence, his juxtaposition of light and dark, the humor of petty melodrama by characters reluctant to face down a world that slowly crushes them." - Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly"You can't have too many English Seagulls: at the intersection of them all, the Russian one will be forever elusive." - Tom Stoppard