Headlong’s THE SEAGULL takes flight

Blanche McIntyre’s new production of THE SEAGULL for Headlong Theatre, which includes sound design by Gregory Clarke, opens tonight at the Nuffield in Southampton before then touring the UK.

A play about unrequited love - a story about how we create stories - and one of the greatest plays of the modern era. In The Seagull, Chekhov explores emotion, creativity and romantic conflict with the clarity of a doctor and the heart of a poet. John Donnelly's new version brings to startling life the rawness, beauty and humour of Chekhov's first major play.

Reviews
Extraordinary ...Director Blanche McIntyre gets bolder and better with every production ...This is an extraordinary take on Chekhov’s play: layered, feisty, gorgeously melancholic and, lest I forget, frequently droll
Telegraph *****

there's never a dull moment …edgy and fascinating.
Guardian ****

short, sharp reinvention blows away the cobwebs so thoroughly that Chekhov’s classic offers the shock of the new once again ...McIntyre’s astute staging leaves plenty to the imagination ...this mix of old and new is always absorbing, and sometimes revelatory
Times ****

We're living in an era of strong and radical Chekhov productions … Blanche McIntyre's staging of The Seagull is up there with the best … Nothing is fidgety. Action and speech are muscular and concentrated … The next time the artistic directorship of a substantial theatre comes round, it should be hers for the taking.
Observer

McIntyre’s production for once lives up to the cliché about making a classic seem new
Financial Times ****

an outstanding production by Blanche McIntyre ...it is fresh, funny, absolutely original and still properly attentive to the core themes of artistic aspiration, emotional cruelty and the changing theatre
WhatsOnStage ****

Tour dates
Nuffield, Southampton: 11th to 20th April
Watford Palace: 23rd to 27th April
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow: 1st to 11th May
Northern Stage, Newcastle: 14th to 18th May
Oxford Playhouse: 21st to 25th May
Richmond Theatre: 29th May to 1st June
Theatre Royal Bath: 4th to 8th June
Derby Theatre: 11th to 22nd June