The Seagull

Summary

1950 BBC live studio production of Chekhov’s drama The Seagull.

Theatre play

The Seagull [Chayka] by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) [more information]

Play synopsis

Comedy. The play dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Tréplev.

Production history

Written in 1895 and first produced in 1896.

Date of transmission

Sunday 5 March 1950

Time

8.30-10.30pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Translator

George Calderon

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Assistant Producer

Kenneth Milne Buckley

Cast

Geoffrey Barrie	Cook
Norman Claridge	Medvedenko
Jeanne de Casalis	Madame Arkadina
Nora Gordon	Pauline
Michael Hordern	Trigorn, Boris Alexeyevitch
Josephine Hunter	Housemaid
Allan Jeayes	Sorin, Peter Nikolayevitch
Geoffrey Keen	Treplef, Constantine Gavrilovitch
Tatiana Lieven	Masha
Luise Rainer	Nina
Michael Rose	Yakof
John Salew	Shamrayef, Ilya Afanasyevitch
Sydney [or Sidney] Tafler	Dorn

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 8.15pm on Friday 10 March 1950.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; comedy; poetry and literature, as theme; Russian drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 3 March 1950 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 46; article by Lionel Hale, ‘From China to Chekhov’, p. 45; article, p. 44

Title

Television: Mr Dimbleby’s Cough (Magazine review)

Author/creator

Harold Hobson (Author)

Reference

The Listener, 23 March 1950, p. 534

Linking notes

production photograph