BALLET REVIEW: THE SEAGULL

JOHN COULBOURN,
Special to TorSun
22 MAR 2012
R: 5/5


Pictured: Sonia Rodriguez, Guillaume Côté

In worlds imagined by playwright Anton Chekhov, not a lot seems to happen — at least, not on the surface. As a dramatist, Chekhov concerned himself more with what was going on under the surface, building name and considerable reputation on his ability to get under the skins of his characters and reveal what was happening there.

And happily, that’s a talent the late Russian playwright shares with contemporary dancemaker John Neumeier, who, in transforming Chekhov’s vision of THE SEAGULL into a full-length ballet, has not only preserved that ability to paint subtext in its most subtle shades, but capitalized on it, underscoring the passions bubbling beneath the surface of a seemingly civilized world. Originally created for the Hamburg Ballet in 2002, his balletic take on THE SEAGULL was acquired by the National Ballet of Canada in ’08 and is now revived by it in a production that opened Wednesday at the Four Seasons Centre. 

While this is still, on most levels, recognizably Chekhov’s masterful Seagull, there have been changes. As a man of the dramatic stage, Chekhov set The Seagull in a theatrical milieu, and, as a man of the dance world, Neumeier transports it to the world of dance, setting it down on  the lakeside estate of Russian prima ballerina Irina Nikolaevna Arkadina (danced to utter perfection on opening night by Greta Hodgkinson) who visits only occasionally.

But, despite her absentee status, her young son, Konstantin (Guillaume Côté) makes it his home, as he dreams of making his own dances — which is precisely what he is doing when his mother arrives from Moscow, trailing her current lover, the choreographer Trigorin (Aleksandar Antonijevic), in her wake. And while neither Irina nor Trigorin are interested in Konstantin’s earnest ode to a seagull, Trigorin is intrigued by Nina (Sonia Rodriguez), the young woman Konstantin loves. Seduced by the urbane Trigorin, Nina falls in love with him, only to be destroyed by his careless use of her.

Indeed, THE SEAGULL fairly overflows with people in love with people who don’t love them, from the servant girl Masha (an impressive Chelsy Meiss in a breakout performance) who yearns for Konstantin despite the passion she inspires in the revolutionary teacher Medvedenko (Noah Long) through to Nina’s mother (Stephanie Hutchison), who is more than a little smitten with the local doctor (McGee Maddox), who is smitten with Irina.

It all unfolds in a series of vignettes, stretched over two acts and set to a pastiche of music drawn from the canons of Russia’s Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and others, and bolstered by the very contemporary work of Evelyn Glennie.

To tell his tale, Neumeier uses a complex dance vocabulary and a slate of excellent dancers to underscore the fact that while, on the surface, things may be as calm as the lake that’s background to the tale, beneath that surface everyone is being pulled in all directions by unspoken currents of passion, class, art and desire. Côté’s Konstantin is achingly vulnerable in the self-absorption that seems to be his mother’s primary legacy, while Antonijevic hits all the sweet spots in his portrayal of  the hedonistic Trigorin, and Rodriguez fairly wallows in the romantic vulnerability of Nina.

And, happily, all are beautifully served not only by Neumeier’s complex choreography but by the understated elegance of his sets, costumes and lighting as well — all of which, it must be added, came all but unhinged during a deeply affecting and delicate pas de deux between Long and Meiss, that in the hands of lesser artists would have been destroyed by the uncharacteristic racket raised by the amateur football team apparently brought in to shift the sets behind them. Hopefully, the regular NBOC backstage crew will return for the rest of the run.