Word: trigorin
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...Treplev (Mark Rylance), son of the notorious actress Arkadina (Christine Estabrook). At the beginning of The Seagull, Konstantin's experimental play meets with laughs; he spends most of the first act alienating its star, his beloved Nina (Stephanie Roth). Nina proceeds to fall in love with Arkadina's lover, Trigorin (Mark Metcalf), a noted writer of whom Konstantin is bitterly jealous...
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...