A notice posted on the way into the auditorium advises that the production contains “haze effects, smoking, nudity, swearing and loud noise”. It’s not what you expect of a Chekhov. True, Benedict Andrews raised the bar with his in-yer-face revival of Three Sisters at the Young Vic last year, and Blanche McIntyre’s Seagull does not go nearly so far (moreover, its most Andrews-influenced element is also among its most questionable); it is, however, thoroughly “now” enough to sit comfortably within the company aesthetic of Headlong, under whose aegis it is touring. McIntyre’s production, and John Donnelly’s forthright new version of the text (which drew genuine gasps during the slanging match between Konstantin and Arkadina on the evening I saw it), look and sound like a contemporary Royal Court show – ironically, since Ian Rickson’s 2007 Court revival of the play was staged in period.
    
The notable opening exchange, usually translated along the lines of “Why do you always wear black?” – “I’m in mourning for my life”, is rendered far more pithily and credibly by Donnelly as “Who died?” – “I did. Every day.” The programme lists all characters by their forenames (which I have not followed here), and in Act Three Arkadina brings Trigorin to orgasm with her mouth… by heaping flattery on his literary skills. Matters do, though, veer from modern to modish when characters deliver asides or soliloquies straight out to us in auditorium lighting, and even get metatheatrical: “[Konstantin]’s coming back on in a minute,” Dorn tells us. And the myriad tables of Andrews’ Three Sisters seem to be echoed in the central feature of Laura Hopkins’ design, a pivoted wooden platform which serves as a table, a boardwalk and even an oversized see-saw.
    
Abigail Cruttenden’s Arkadina is not a grande dame of an actress but is definitely the queen bee in this milieu, and shows that un certain âge looks much more youthful these days. Pearl Chanda’s Nina is as high-strung from the start as Alexander Cobb’s Konstantin. It makes her subsequent disintegration more plausible, although Chanda (a 2013 RADA graduate) does not yet possess the chops to make Nina compelling; Gyuri Sarossy as Trigorin effortlessly dominates their scenes together. But overall McIntyre’s production for once lives up to the cliché about making a classic seem new; it is not simply dressed in this season’s threads.

Written for the Financial Times.