"The Seagull" by Jakub Brazis is a play that will return to your dreams. The young director managed to turn the classic play into a metaphysical dream that touches and changes the consciousness of all of us for a long time. It's an experiment that goes beyond the stage. That swamp involves us all and does not leave us alone to relive the drama of that family - and ourselves in it.
"The Seagull" was born from the creative experiments of one acting course. From the very beginning of the play, you willy-nilly feel like a member of a small group of young people. What is special about this play is that the central character embodying all possible experiences is the entire cast, which acts as a giant engine of young energy, a medium in which the actions of one character ignite another. The entire performance is like on a swing: between complete fusion with the naked (in the literal sense of the word) action on stage and detachment, withdrawal when speaking. And in the middle of that swing, there is silence, a shrill silence, which creates the impression that you are drowning in the atmosphere of a collective dream. A silence during which all that ball of energy approaches the viewer and appears with all its mesmerizing power.
Although you are participating in a sensory experiment, you hear every word written by Chekhov and realize that this play is written for the present, that it is for you. You can feel the metaphysics of the text of "The Seagull", the strength of which does not fade, just as the struggle between heated passions, the constant search for the source of love and creativity. The play lets you feel what the play talks about, about tearing passions, creative searches, changing times, future prophecies and fulfillments. This director and his actors could not have chosen a better image that says goodbye to the past and welcomes the future.
Jakūbas Brazys is a theater director of the young generation, a student of Oskar Korshunov, who has already created performances based on Moliere's play "The Misanthrope" and William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth". "The Seagull" is the director's third play. Jokūbas Brazys collaborated with several international festivals: "Face Theater Festival" in Budapest (Hungary), "Volta On Line" in Vilnius (Lithuania), "Theatre Olympics 2019" in Saint Petersburg (Russia). The young director worked as an assistant to his teacher Oskars Koršunovas (during the staging of Rimanta Kmita's "Remyga" at the Šiauliai State Drama Theater and William Shakespeare's "Othello" at OKT/Vilnius City Theatre). According to Oskars Koršunov, Jakūbas Brazys is already creating a unique theatrical language.
The play was translated from Russian by Sigitas Parulskis.
The project is partially financed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture.