Seagull (NHB Classic Plays)

"In nineteenth-century rural Russia, an anxious young writer prepares the first performance of his new play for the two women in his life. The consequences are devastating, with everybody in love with the wrong person, and death hovering close by. Through both comedy and tragedy, 'Seagull' explores lives that are precariously balanced between love and indifference, success and failure, hope and despair. This new translation of Chekhov's classic play--by Charlotte Pyke, John Kerr and Joseph Blatchley--restores the cuts demanded by the Russian censor in 1896. It premiered at London's Arcola Theatre in 2011, directed by Blatchley, with a cast featuring Geraldine James and Roger Lloyd Pack"--Publisher's description, back cover.