For 'Seagull,' director dove into translation
Jokes in translation are never as funny.
"It's a cultural thing," says Diego Arciniegas, who wrote a new translation of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's darkly comic "The Seagull" for the production he's directing at the Publick Theatre, now in previews.
"When I was looking at translations," Arciniegas says, "so many of them were filtered through the British sensibility, and I think Russians are more like Italians, Southern Europeans, and South Americans, who often justify inappropriate behavior by blaming it on their emotions."
The play, says Arciniegas, "is like spending a weekend with your family. Think 'Arrested Development.' Everyone is in each other's face and annoying one another, but they're family and they have to live with each other. It's funny, especially when it's not your family."
"The Seagull" follows the tensions between a successful actress, Madame Arkadina, and her unconventionally creative son Constantine. While Arkadina and her lover, the writer Trigorin, find satisfaction in the fame and money they've achieved, Constantine points out their artistic and emotional emptiness. All of the characters do silly and embarrassing things as they become increasingly desperate to move beyond jealousy, ambition, and the reality of their lives.
"Usually, circumstances this ridiculous become farce," says Arciniegas, "but my job has been to prevent their emotional arguments from coming off as whiny, and offer fully realized characters whose behavior is funny and awful at the same time."
Arciniegas, who says he studied Russian in college, went back to the original script and wrote a word-for-word translation before trying to turn it into conversational American English. "As the actors rehearse it, we're making adjustments so that the words fit comfortably in their mouths and bodies."
Taking on translating a Russian text seems like a daunting task, but Arciniegas says he initially tried just the first act. "I figured if it worked, I'd keep going, and if not, I'd go back to one of the other translations. But I found it really satisfying, and spent the month of January hunched over my desk for hours, losing track of everything else."
What you discover when you dig into Chekhov, Arciniegas says, "is that he subordinated everything to character. He also wrote in a very gentle tone, and it takes a lot of discipline for actors to avoid becoming hypnotized and wallow in the characters' self-pity."
Arciniegas plans to take advantage of the Publick's outdoor setting with an angled set by Dahlia Al-Habieli that allows the nearby Charles River to be visible and serve as the lake in the play, and that includes a set of French doors letting characters move inside and out.
"This play is particularly suited to this outdoor theater," Arciniegas says, "because the action takes place indoors and out, and the space here helps to emphasize how grand their dreams are and keeps the central image of the seagull close."
At Christian Herter Park, through Sept. 7. Tickets: $25.65-$30.40. 617-454-1444, publicktheatre.com.
More outdoors
Starting Wednesday, Chelsea-based Apollinaire Theatre Company will present its sixth summer of free theater in both Spanish and English. This summer's offerings are two one-acts, Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound" and Aaron Sorkin's "Hidden in This Picture," presented on the Chel-sea waterfront in Mary O'Malley Park.
"We started the summer series after we moved to Chelsea," says Apollinaire artistic director Danielle Fauteux Jacques. "This is a very bilingual community, and we wanted to do something that would include the community." The plays are presented in English on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and in Spanish on Fridays and Sundays.
"In 'The Real Inspector Hound,' two theater critics become drawn into the whodunit they're watching and are isolated from the real world. We're staging it on a pier, so the audience will be surrounded by water on three sides," she says. "One of the characters even says, 'I feel like we're floating on pack ice,' so I think the water setting will be effective."
The audience will then move off the pier to a grassy little hill for Sorkin's satire about a movie director who discovers three cows in his dramatic sunset shot.
"We've never staged the plays in exactly the same way," says Fauteux Jacques. "We just try to use what's available," including picnic huts, a small cement stage built on the back of a garage, or simply an open area. "We use the dock a lot because it's a cool spot on a warm summer night."
Fauteux Jacques encourages theatergoers to bring blankets, lawn chairs, and a picnic dinner. "And don't forget a sweater," she says. "The biggest problem we have is that people aren't warm enough."
July 9-26. Free. 617-887-2336, apollinairetheatre.com
Circus atmosphere
UniverSoul Circus, a one-ring circus with primarily African-American performers, presents three shows today in the Northeastern University Columbus Avenue parking lot (at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard). The circus, which includes tigers and elephants as well as such acts as acrobats, continues through Sunday. Tickets: $16.50. Information: universoulcircus.com.
