Over the next four weeks the Auckland Theatre Company is putting on its first ever play designed to be watched online. The first episode of Chekov’s The Seagull comes out this Friday at 7pm.
The Seagull by the Auckland Theatre Company Photo: Supplied
Director and co-creator Eleanor Bishop says the play lends itself to an online format.
“It’s about an extended family, ten characters, some of them are artists and normally they all gather up at the lake to drink and hang out and this time they’re gathering on a Zoom call because they can’t all be together.
“The story’s going to play out just as it does in the play with people falling in and out of love and reflecting on their hopes and disappointments and all of that Chekovian goodness but just over a Zoom call.”
And the Zoom call with its pauses and awkward moments has a Chekovian feel, she told Jesse Mulligan.
“The story lends itself really well, it just feels like families and people who care about each other, who can’t be together at the moment they’re getting on Zoom calls to spend time together and there’s all the awkwardness of that inherent in Chekov with all the awkward pauses.”
The two-hour play is split into four parts, Bishop says.
“We thought it would be great to work on it in chunks and then we could adjust each episode to the level alerts as they change.”
Staging a play in this format hasn’t been without problems, she says.
“ATC has been doing contactless deliveries of desk lamps and boom mikes just so we can make the Zoom experience that everyone is familiar with look and feel a little bit better.”
And then there’s the complications of the mute button. The actors have got to mute and unmute themselves at the right time, she says.
"That happened yesterday in rehearsal Jennifer Ward-Lealand just said 'You’re on mute darling, you’re on mute'."
Bishop says new layers in the play have been revealed by staging it in this way.
“This play is so much about loneliness and longing for connection and the humour in that and that is really amplified in this format.
“And you get to be really close to these actors, these beautiful, amazing actors who you normally see on stage … but this is just a different way to see them, it’s intimate and you get to see two or three people all on the same frame
"You can see all of their reactions in a way that you can’t in a film and you can’t on a stage.”
The play can be viewed for free live at 7pm this Friday on the Auckland Theatre Company Facebook page.
