Reluctantly, Chekhov agreed to MAT staging the play afresh, though he remained sceptical of its success – one reason why he stayed away from Moscow during the new premiere. It took Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder with Konstantin Stanislavski, of the fledgling Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and a friend of Chekhov’s, all of his persuasive skills to convince Chekhov that the production had failed because of directorial incompetence and sloppy acting, and that a more imaginative – and scrupulous – presentation could show The Seagull in far better light. When one of the first-night spectators wrote to him to say she had liked the production, Chekhov thought it was to ‘pour healing balsam’ on his wounds, for, he said, “What I did see was vague, dingy, dreary, and wooden”. The audience booed and laughed uproariously, driving Anton Chekhov to the back of the stage and so scaring the lead actress that she lost her voice.Īs Chekhov fled the theatre – and the city – he vowed never again to write a play, nor allow any of his existing plays to go on stage again. The Seagull ’s premiere at St Petersburg’s Alexandrinsky Theatre on Octowas a disaster.
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