Word: trigorin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Voight, returning to Broadway for the first time in 25 years, gives an unshowy performance as the celebrity writer Trigorin that subtly conveys the character's lonely, inward-looking obsession with his craft. As the actress Arkadina, Tyne Daly stresses monstrous self-absorption. Not for Daly the customary dotty unawareness of how she puts down her son, a would-be avant- garde playwright; each belittling gesture is calculated cruelty. As the son, Ethan Hawke solves the play's pivotal problem, foreshadowing the youth's instability and making clear why he and not his at-wit's-end beloved, Nina, commits...
While highly touted in the play's programs notes, this strategy is essentially pointless: the incestuous jealousy that Konstantin feels toward Trigorin would be apparent without it; Nina shows more character than Ophelia ever did; and the analogy completely falls apart when it comes to Trigorin and his relationship with Nina...
While Arkadina is supposed to be narcissistic and constantly self-dramatizing, Estabrook seems to have abandoned any inner life the character might have. A shell composed of gestures and laughter, Chekhov's Arkadina does have some moments of genuine anguish, most notably when she begs Trigorin to stay...
Similarly, Rylance's Konstantin shows almost no progress between the first and second acts (Act IV in the original version). Two years later, Konstantin has become a famous author, Nina has abandoned him for Trigorin and then in turn been abandoned herself. Yet Rylance plays the part as morosely in the second act as in the first. Konstantin has not changed as much as Nina, but a more subtle portrayal would make the audience more sympathetic to the depressed young author...
Roth and Metcalf have easier roles to play and they perform them well. Roth's Nina shimmers with effervescence; it is easy to understand Trigorin's attraction. Metcalf plays Trigorin with Jimmy Stewart lankiness, making the role of the famous writer more self-effacing than usual. Trigorin traditionally comes across as pompous rather than disillusioned, as he is here; while an unusual choice, it is not necessarily...