“A play with little action and tons of love”, was how Anton Chekhov presented The Seagull to his publisher Suvorin. Io Non Sono un Gabbiano – which had its national debut at the Primavera dei Teatri Festival in Castrovillari in 2017 - opens with the funeral of Arkadina, a symbol of conventional theatre. Friends and relatives pay tribute to the great actress with artistic performances, or pseudo versions of the same, masked as funeral tributes.
While Kostia, Arkadina’s son, underlines that “new forms are needed, and if there are none, then nothing is necessary”, it is also true that to distance oneself from conventions is anything but easy or painless, in a pièce in which everyone does everything they can to be unhappy, and to make sure that others fell the same way.
In our reworking, it is, as always, love which dominates the relationships and conflicts between the characters. A love that is tainted by the need to be considered and appreciated, between narcissism and representation, a performative love which demands attention and originality”.