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The first of what are generally considered to be Chekhov's four major plays. It centers on the romantic and artistic conflicts between four theatrical characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading leading lady Irina Arkadina, her son the experimental playwright Konstantin Treplev, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin.
Like the rest of Chekhov's full-length plays, 'The Seagull' relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully developed characters. In opposition to much of the melodramatic theater of the nineteenth century, lurid actions (such as Treplev's suicide attempts) are kept offstage. Characters tend to speak in ways that skirt around issues rather than addressing them directly.
The play has a strong intertextual relationship with Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. Arkadina and Treplev quote lines from it before the play-within-a-play in the first act. There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well. For instance, Treplev seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from Uncle Claudius.
The opening night of the first production was a famous failure. Chekhov supposedly walked out in the middle of the performance, much as Treplev walks out on the performance of his play-within-a-play.
