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Swine Palace presents two wildly different interpretations of a Chekhov classic


They say there are two sides to every story.

Swine Palace’s latest project will explore how the same story and themes can transform with different settings and tones as, for the first time, they present two plays in rotating repertory—meaning two shows staged simultaneously in alternating slots. The plays—Anton Chekhov’s classic The Seagull and Aaron Posner’s modern adaptation Stupid F***ing Bird—feature most of the same cast of professional actors and LSU MFA students but vastly different deliveries.

Also differing between the two plays is their direction. Veteran international director Gavin Cameron-Webb, whose credits include many Shakespearean works and a teaching stint at Juilliard, has taken on direction for the straightforward Chekhov classic, while Risa Brainin, chair and director of performance of the Department of Theater and Dance at University of California, Santa Barbara, leads the farcical, postmodern adaptation.

Poster for production. Courtesy Swine Palace.

“We worked together throughout the audition process,” Brainin says of directing in counterpoint to Cameron-Webb. “We cast the roles together. We have the same scenic designer and the same designers in sound and lighting. I know that our scenic designer has been working with both of us to create something that both plays can work on, and yet there will be a lot of changes.”

With the same basic parts, Cameron-Webb takes a classic approach to the story with a 19th-century setting while Brainin brings it into 2017. Chekhov’s original text employs plenty of subtext to make its points, but Stupid F***ing Bird pulls buried motifs up by the roots and drops them unceremoniously on the stage. The theme of unrequited love, symbolized with the titular bird, stretches across both shows and resonates with the viewer in both the Chekhovian era and an uncouth, clever 21st-century riff.

“There are lots of ways in which the two plays are very similar, and there are lots of ways in which they diverge from each other,” Cameron-Webb says. “So I think, as an audience member, it’s a wonderful opportunity to get to see lots of different ramifications of the two pieces and how they bounce off each other.”


Check out the show(s):

Swine Palace will present the two shows on alternating nights to give audiences a chance to catch them back-to-back and compare. The repertory run of The Seagull and Stupid F***ing Bird at the Reilly Theatre is March 22-April 7. swinepalace.org


This article was originally published in the March 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.