Theatre review: The Seagull gets lively new life in Stupid F***ing Bird

Theatre Native Arts Leisure

Posner’s Silly F***ing Fowl is actually Chekhov’s Seagull in up to date language, with many dozens of repetitions of the title’s newspaper-unfriendly F-word, a great deal of ironic comedy, and a thick overlay of metatheatre.

Printed Apr 15, 2023 • 3 minute learn

Kerry Sandomirsky and Nathan Kay in Silly F***ing Fowl, which runs at The Cultch Historic Theatre till April 23. Photograph: Emily Cooper Photograph by Emily Cooper /jpg

Silly F***ing Fowl

When: To April 23

The place: The Cultch Historic Theatre, Vancouver

Tickets & Information: From $25 at thecultch.com

One of many nice performs within the Western canon, Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896) dramatizes a bunch of emotional Russians battling questions on life and artwork, and with the agonies of unrequited love. American playwright Aaron Posner describes his 2013 play Silly F***ing Fowl as “kind of tailored” from The Seagull.

Posner’s Fowl is actually Chekhov’s Seagull in up to date language, with many dozens of repetitions of the title’s newspaper-unfriendly F-word, a great deal of ironic comedy, and a thick overlay of metatheatre. The mix works splendidly in Mindy Parfitt’s humorous, imaginative, fantastically acted and at instances deeply shifting Search Social gathering manufacturing at The Cultch.

As in Parfitt’s current Arts Membership manufacturing of The Cull, the ensemble by no means leaves the stage. When not in a scene or addressing the viewers, the actors sit on ghostly-looking furnishings surrounding Amir Ofek’s open set. The play frequently suggests similarities between the fictional lives onstage and our so-called actual ones within the viewers — though it additionally paradoxically challenges the very form of theatre we’re watching.

Posner’s plot mirrors Chekhov’s. On a lakeside property Conrad aspires to turn out to be an avant garde artist. He’s estranged from his actress mom Emma, visiting along with her well-known author boyfriend Trigorin. Dev loves depressive Masha, who pines for Conrad. Conrad loves Nina, who performs in his work, then runs off with Trigorin. Conrad’s previous uncle Sorn observes all of it.

Baraka Rahmani and Nathan Kay in Stupid F***ing Bird, which runs at The Cultch Historic Theatre until April 23. Photo: Emily Cooper — Baraka Rahmani and Nathan Kay in Silly F***ing Fowl, which runs at The Cultch Historic Theatre till April 23. Photograph: Emily Cooper Photograph by Emily Cooper /jpg

We finally learn the way all these ambitions prove — a combined bag, although largely “thwarted,” in Conrad’s phrase. However the plot outcomes are far much less necessary than the moment-to-moment textures of the characters’ lives, their struggles to reconcile want and chance.

Posner provides full worth to Chekhov’s complicated humanism even in his playful up to date vernacular: when Masha, wearing black, speaks her well-known line, “I’m in mourning for my life,” Dev replies, “Wow. OK.” And the actors by no means fail to ship. Emma Slipp subtly modulates Masha’s persistent darkness as her obsession begins to put on down. Anton Lipovetsky’s grounded, sweetly commonsensical Dev anchors the viewers amid the opposite characters’ emotional storms.

The stormiest is Conrad, the tortured central determine. Raised by a horrible mom, in rightful doubt about his beloved Nina’s emotions, and determined to vary the world along with his artwork, Conrad rages by the play, as sad and impotent as Masha. Nathan Kay’s annoyed, heartbroken efficiency is incandescent.

Anton Lipovetsky and Emma Slipp in Stupid F***ing Bird, which runs at The Cultch Historic Theatre until April 23. Photo: Emily Cooper — Anton Lipovetsky and Emma Slipp in Silly F***ing Fowl, which runs at The Cultch Historic Theatre till April 23. Photograph: Emily Cooper Photograph by Emily Cooper /jpg

It’s straightforward to know Conrad’s obsession with Nina. Baraka Rahmani provides us the play’s brightest mild, then skilfully portrays Nina’s painful descent right into a brokenness as extreme as Conrad’s. Kerry Sandomirsky’s comparatively stolid Emma, content material along with her conservative performing profession and reconciled to the parental harm she has executed, reveals her power and vulnerability attempting to persuade Trigorin to not depart her.

Jesse Lipscombe informs Trigorin, the least well-developed character, with dignity and quiet charisma. With the fewest traces, Kevin McNulty’s Sorn will get a few of the largest laughs, chewing over one of many play’s main conundrums: does everybody really feel as I do, that your life is an act?

The manufacturing has enjoyable with metatheatricality. Kay and Lipovetsky ask the viewers for options to assist make Nina love Conrad. Conrad’s try and cast off previous theatrical types climaxes in his having a play produced: Silly F***ing Fowl. However in the long run, he laments, nobody’s life has modified and nothing actual has occurred.

Possibly not, however we’ve had a heck of a fantastic time.

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