Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Distilled Chekhov in Spanish: Guillermo Cacace’s intimate GAVIOTA gets to the heart of “The Seagull”

• By drediman
• November 20, 2024
• No Comments

Last night at the flexible BAM Fisher space, I attended Gaviota, one of the offerings of this fall’s Next Wave Festival, courtesy of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Conceived and directed by Guillermo Cacace and adapted from Chekhov’s play The Seagull by Juan Ignacio Fernández, Gaviota, in short, aggressively streamlines the classic play, distilling it from a luxuriously-plotted five acts to a stylized 90-minute fever dream presentation — in Argentine Spanish sans English supertitles. The production is further condensed by using only five actresses through which to filter the psychological drama and get to the heart of Chekhov’s ubiquitous play.

Although the lack of real time English translations may scare some audiences, I’d nonetheless encourage adventurous theater fans to check out this striking adaptation, especially if you’re already familiar with The Seagull. It’s a fascinating gender-blind take on the play that — aided by an evocative soundtrack — alters the focus from desire and longing to alienation and psychological anguish. This angle makes particular sense in this day and age, and also given that the play was concocted in 2020 during the dark days of the pandemic (a brief preface, in English, introduces this context). Admittedly, those with some knowledge of Spanish and/or Chekhov’s play will get the most out of the experience, allowing them to spend more time and effort focused on the merits of the raw, emotionally-charged adaptation rather than piecing together the plot and making sense of the relationships between the characters.

Cacace’s staging of Gaviota is exceedingly intimate, placing audiences on all four sides of the five actresses, who perform seated at a large square table (some lucky audience members are even given the opportunity to be parked at the table, just inches from the performers). As such, there’s a staged reading quality to the whole endeavor, calling to mind a downsized version of a Jamie Lloyd production. The quintet of Argentinean actresses — Muriel Sago, Paula Fernández Mbarak, Romina Padoan, Clarisa Korovsky, and Marcela Guerty, each of whom are making tier North American acting debut with this mounting — are to be commended for their astute actorly instincts and the intensity they bring to their performances.

RECOMMENDED

GAVIOTA
Off-Broadway, Play
Brooklyn Academy of Music
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 23