Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull

"[1] It was the first production in Moscow of Anton Chekhov's 1896 play The Seagull, though it had been performed with only moderate success in St. Petersburg two years earlier.

The MAT's success was due to the fidelity of its delicate representation of everyday life, its intimate, ensemble playing, and the resonance of its mood of despondent uncertainty with the psychological disposition of the Russian intelligentsia of the time.

[4] While visiting his brother's estate near Kharkiv in August 1898, Stanislavski began work on his production plan (or his directorial "score" as he came to call it) for the play, into which he incorporated his sensory experiences of the countryside there.

[5] He also detailed individual rhythms, physical lives and mannerisms for each character: Sorin's laugh is "startling and unexpected"; Arkadina "habitually folds her arms behind her back when she is angry or excited"; Konstantin is, in general, "tense"; Masha takes snuff; Medvedenko smokes a lot.

"[6] This tight control of the mise en scène was intended to facilitate the unified expression of the inner action that Stanislavski perceived to be hidden beneath the surface of the play in its subtext.

[15] Despite this, a considerable length by the standards of the conventional practice of the day, Stanislavski felt it was under-rehearsed and threatened to have his name removed from the posters when Nemirovich-Danchenko refused his demand to postpone its opening by a week.

Chekhov's unwillingness to explain or expand on the script forced Stanislavski to dig beneath the surface of the text in ways that were new in theatre.