The Seagull and Other Birds
Closed 1h 20m
The Seagull and Other Birds
68

The Seagull and Other Birds NYC Reviews and Tickets

68%
(4 Ratings)
Positive
75%
Mixed
0%
Negative
25%
Members say
Clever, Ambitious, Excruciating, Overrated, Resonant

About the Show

Abrons Arts Center presents Pan Pan Theatre's concise reinvention of Anton Chekhov's classic about the gap that always exists between what people want and what they get.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (4)

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45 Reviews | 20 Followers
94
Clever, Ambitious, Great acting, Intelligent, Original

See it if you like challenging performance.

Don't see it if you like your Chekhov straight-up.

36 Reviews | 6 Followers
32
Cliched, Disappointing, Excruciating, Overrated, Slow

See it if Perhaps if you're younger than I am

Don't see it if You don't like unusual or experimental theater

11 Reviews | 3 Followers
80
Clever, Enchanting, Resonant

See it if you like experimental theatre

Don't see it if you don't know anything about the Seagull from Chekhov

2 Reviews | 1 Follower
76
Entertaining

See it if you like to have a good time and enjoy complex shows.

Don't see it if do not like a difficult plot.

Critic Reviews (10)

The New York Times
March 27th, 2016

"Pan Pan turns one of modern drama’s great seminal works upside down...Stretches of tedium are intentional, I presume, suggesting how in our search for the new in art we keep returning to the old...But this show also conveys the unquenchable energy that courses through the very attempt to make art...No matter how resistant you are to Pan Pan’s often baffling theater of anarchy, I’ll wager that you’ll find moments throughout that have you grinning."
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Time Out New York
March 27th, 2016

"Here we are in the land of the authentically zany, and at its best 'Seagull' goes quite mad. But while Pan Pan made the sensational 'Oedipus Loves You' and 'The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane,' they are rather less successful with this riff on Chekhov...The performers are, without fail, charming...But the momentum goes wonky. Chekhov's original resists them, and in trying to force the Pan Pan spirit into it, the group tires itself out."
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Talkin' Broadway
March 26th, 2016

"What Pan Pan has done is to dig deeply into Chekhov's play, retaining its broad outline and filtering it through an Irish sensibility reminiscent of James Joyce or Samuel Beckett at their most enigmatic. And while parts of the production defy understanding, a lot of it is fun in a Mad Tea Party sort of way...You may leave the theater scratching your head, but you will certainly have experienced a wild ride with a smart and clever theatrical troupe."
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Stage Buddy
April 4th, 2016

"Deconstructing and subverting a text from within is usually dubious ground to tread...This is the central problem for 'The Seagull and Other Birds'...The result is an awkward and unwieldy chimera. Where 'The Seagull and Other Birds' most succeeds is in the realization of Chekhov’s 'The Seagull' as a comedy...There is not a single member of the cast who fails to play it properly straight, and the performances, taken at face-value, are frequently quite funny."
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Exeunt Magazine
March 29th, 2016

"The whole thing comes together into something weirder and greater than the sum of its parts, mixing rigorous movement theatre with precise, subtle acting choices...It is a little longer than it needs to be and resonates more if you know Chekhov’s original...While there are moments that are baffling and frustrating, every second of the piece is done with commitment and a kinetic sense of the entire ensemble as a living organism. It’s a strange piece, but it’s got some magic to it."
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New York Theatre Review
March 28th, 2016

"Pan Pan Theatre Company delivers a piece that does veer slightly into territory a little too absurd but overall is very smart, straightforward and practical. Every person in the cast is full of intense energy and director Gavin Quinn channels that energy into a piece that bounces into every corner of the space to create a larger than life performance…'The Seagull and Other Birds' is a clever analysis of high art versus low art and whether they each have a place in our canon of classics."
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Musings in Intermission
October 2nd, 2014
For a previous production

"Director Gavin Quinn, stupefying the conventionality of theatre and our expectations of such, pulls the floor right out from under us...Pan Pan's 'The Seagull' doesn't walk us to that all too common line between traditional and avant garde but rather traces the transference of text between them; a stream of information that regenerates and changes constantly."
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Irish Times
September 30th, 2014
For a previous production

"Pan Pan Theatre, easily Ireland’s most searching contemporary theatre company, makes Chekhov’s play the main attraction within a crammed, noisy aviary: the 'other birds' here are short new texts, largely written by the cast...The logic behind this is deliberately elusive, and those only loosely acquainted with pop culture may find their attention snagging on references...Feels like the true anxiety of anyone who would attempt something new, knowing that it can’t always fly.."
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