CREDITS

Playwright - Anton Chekhov
Writer and Director - Saro Lusty-Cavallari
Producer and Dramaturg - Bridget Haberecht
Associate Producer - Jason Jefferies
Set and Costume Designer - Kate Beere
Lighting and AV Designer - Aron Murray
Intimacy Consultant - Madelaine Osbourn
Stage Manager - Jemima Owen
Marketing and Production Photography - Robert Miniter
Rehearsal Photography - Matt Bartlett

WITH
Maddie Anderson - Talia Benatar
Polly Anderson - Kath Gordon
Irene Nicholson - Deborah Jones
Marty Symonds -Jason Jefferies
Constantine Nicholson - Saro Lepejian
Peter Nicholson - Tim McGarry
Dr Eugene Dorn - Brendan Miles
Alex Wolf - Shan-Ree Tan
Nina Michaels - Alexandra Travers

CHEKHOV AND THE SEAGULL

Bridget Haberecht, Dramaturg

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull launched the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898, helmed by director Konstantin Stanislavsky, with a cast of novice actors. The production was later lauded as a success, despite only receiving sixteen performances over its eight-year stint as one of the company’s many repertory productions. The emblematic seagull became synonymous with the Moscow Art Theatre, along with its ideals of hope and striving for something greater, with the company adopting the bird as its logo. 

Despite this success, Chekhov viewed Stanislavsky’s direction as offensive to his own intentions of the play. His overly prescriptive, moody and often melancholic direction caused Stanislavsky himself to later reflect that he did not understand the play. Chekhov would call the director’s initial interpretation as entirely “non-political.” The legacy of this means, to this day, many theatre-goers internally groan at the prospect of a two-and-a-half hour Chekhov play. 

The relegation of Chekhov to the realm of museum theatre written by dead white men is understandable, given its treatment as such in the western theatrical tradition. Our guiding light throughout this process was Chekhov’s original tagline; “a comedy in four acts.”

The intensity of these characters is what makes them hilarious. Even at their most flawed, they are endearing in their struggle. We frequently likened Con to Kendall Roy in Succession, a character that takes himself more seriously than most, but one that you can’t help but laugh at. Creator Adam Mckay said of actor Jeremy Strong, “he thinks he’s playing Hamlet.” It is this same unserious seriousness that is the cornerstone of Chekhovian characters. They take themselves seriously, even if the play itself does not. 

Chekhov uses the characters as his mouthpiece, but rarely are they aware of the point they are making on his behalf. They are absorbed in their own goals and struggles, as opposed to those of the broader world with which Chekhov was intensely concerned and interested in. As such, they are often viewed as merely sad and tragic upon initial interpretation. It is not interesting however, to watch people sit in the melancholy of missed opportunity, as and endless line of previous productions of The Seagull  demonstrate. We as artists love to sit in the darkness, in the struggle. We want to cry, to scream, to demonstrate great tragedy and profound struggle. It is exceedingly more interesting, however, to watch people simply striving towards something a little bit better, even if they don’t always succeed.

Gillett, J. (2025), ‘Taking Flight with The Seagull: From “Chekhovian Mood” To Active Analysis’, Stanislavski Studies, 13(2), pp. 145 - 167.

Senelick, L. (2004), ‘Stanislavsky’s Second Thoughts On “The Seagull”’, Cambridge Journal,  20(2), pp. 127 – 137.

WRITER AND DIRECTOR’S NOTES

It’s sometimes hard to mock the things you love. Especially when something you love is in pain. Theatre has been in a precarious position since the Brandis cuts and it felt like Covid came in to finish the job. The Seagull - in its many iterations - has always been a wonderful temperature check on how we feel about the state of art and industry. It’s often so hard for Chekhov’s original comedic intention to come through because directors and actors relate too well to the material. The kinds of intense men with intense beards who are self-possessed enough to stage - and perhaps even adapt - The Seagull invariably finding themselves relating to Constantine so well they stop short of letting him be as much of a source of humour as Chekhov writes him. 

Of course there’s a weight to be found in The Seagull and the quiet tragedies of each character failing to achieve happiness are achingly real. But at it’s core The Seagull is a deeply funny parade of pomposity and pettiness that spares no one. Every binary in the play is a dialectic of two deeply absurd belief systems; old versus new, young versus old, middlebrow versus avant garde. Chekhov uses The Seagull to excise every criticism he has of theatre, art and contemporary society and then doubles back round to mock the pretensions of those very criticisms. We tend to always read Chekhov through the explosive century of Russian history that proceeded him but his view on his own culture was one of a slow motion death drive; people stuck in loops of behaviour that no external force can shake them out of.

It’s this feeling that inspired me to move the action of The Seagull to the first Covid lockdown of 2020 - before masks or RAT tests or any substantial infection had hit Australia. Most people found themselves in a curious limbo. We felt the political tide of the world around us shift, the welfare state kick into gear like never before, read the horrific statistics of overseas death tolls while learning to bake bread and binge watching old sitcoms. Within a matter of mere months it was all over and we slowly started reopening. We’d avoided the worst of it. We were open again. Until we weren’t.

During the pandemic there was a running joke amongst artists about the amount of bad Covid plays we’d have to endure once theatre’s reopened. What has surprised me is how little people - particularly artists - want to talk about it. The pandemic and the lockdown devastated us physically, psychologically, socially, politically and economically. For emerging artists, their practice was snuffed out in it’s most crucial years, leaving behind an industry so devastated and in need of relief that the little space left was becoming ever more hardfought over.

Like Chekhov I find myself stuck in the loop of being deeply upset by this situation and acutely aware of the pretensions of those feelings. In the cavalcade of shitty things that has been the world since 2020, the declining health of Australian theatre doesn’t feel like the most urgent of crises but it hurts nonetheless. In an era defined by isolation and disconnection, the decline of theatre feels like a microcosm for everything that’s gone wrong for us.

It’s hard to mock the things you love but it doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun sometimes. In discussions of The Seagull - both the original and this adaptation - I’ve had it described as both a roast and elegy of industry and artform. I suppose I see it as a wake; barbs and observations born from love being shared in attempt to stave off the sadness that comes with loss. The only difference; theatre isn’t dead. Yet. I hope.

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  • Kate Beere

    SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

    Kate Beere is a set and costume designer working across theatre, film and events.  Kate holds a Masters of Fine Arts (Design for Performance) and a BFA (Design for Performance) from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). Some of her past set design include The Player Kings and Eureka Day at the Seymour Centre (2025). Set and costume for The Lonesome West and Sparkly Darkling at the Old Fitz (2024). Kate has been nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best independent Costume design in for Significant Other(New, 2021). Recently, Kate was awarded a Sydney Theatre Award for best independent set design for Arlington and nominated for The Inheritance. Kate was also nominated for an APDG award for Arlington’s set design.

  • Talia Benatar

    MADDIE ANDERSON

    Talia is an Actors Centre Australia–trained performer whose recent stage credits include Secret House’s The Cherry Orchard (Old Fitz Theatre), Loose Ends’ Motel, New Theatre’s Shakespeare in Love, and Wheelhouse’s The Removalists. Since graduating, she has worked across the US and Sydney, appearing in The Producers’ Club’s A Sketch of New York, Loose Ends’ Christmas Dinner and Christmas-19.
    She recently collaborated with Neil Gaiman and FourPlay on James Chappel’s Bloody Sunrise, performing live with them in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. Her screen work includes roles in the feature films Thursday’s Child and Spooky Action.
    Talia is also the co-founder of The Company Theatre alongside Harry Reid and Olivia Hall-Smith, debuting with a sold-out season of ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, where she served as co-director and co-producer.

  • Kath Gordon

    POLLY ANDERSON

    Some of Kath’s theatre credits include, The Pigeons (KXT) The Queens City of the South, (Qtopia) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, (Melbourne Theatre Company) All My Sons, Things I Know To Be True, In Angel Gear, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, (New Theatre), Status, Me & My Girl (Melb Arts Centre), Waiting in Soho (Sydney Fringe), Alabama Rain (Belvoir 25A) The Disappearance (Chippen St. Theatre) Othello, (Independent Theatre), Maestro, Slow Trains & Dirty Towns, Some Mother’s Son, Is That You Nancy, (La Mama) Laundry & Bourbon (Melbourne Arts Ensemble) A Streetcar Named Desire (HTC) Favourite Son, (Comedy Theatre) Gentlemen Only (Grant St. Theatre) and in Los Angles, The Odd Couple and Room Service (Marilyn Monroe Theatre). Film and TV credits include The Playbook, The Resident Magician, Submerge, Mother and Son, Doctor Blake, Home and Away, Neighbours, City Homicide, Blue Heelers, All Saints, Satisfaction, Water Rats, Prisoner. For the Nine Network, Kath performed comedy sketches on The Footy Show and played over 60 characters in The Ossie Ostrich Video Show. Kath won Best Actress at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Awards for Life Through A Lens.

  • Bridget Haberecht

    PRODUCER/DRAMATURG

    Bridget is an actor and theatre-maker from Sydney. She has an MFA from the American.
    Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, and has studied abroad at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. She was a founder and resident dramaturg of The Journalists theatre collective in New York City. Bridget is a member of MEAA, and in her spare time works as the Client and Venue Services Manager at NIDA.
    Her theatre credits include: IRL (KXT/The Other Theatre); Attempts on Her Life (KXT/Montague Basement); Taming of the Shrew (understudy, The Playwrought Project); All My Sons and Breaking the Code (The New Theatre); Mary Rose: The Girl Who Died Twice (SoHo Shakespeare Company); Antigone and Much Ado About Nothing (Staten Island Shakespeare Company); Little Women workshop (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Charlotte’s Web (American Repertory Theatre); Making Porn: 25th Anniversary (Wilton Theatre Factory); Our Town and Macbeth (A.R.T. Institute/Harvard); The Seagull and Fear and Misery in the Third Reich (Moscow Art Theatre).

  • Jason Jefferies

    MARTIN ‘MARTY’ SYMONDS/ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

    Jason Jefferies is a writer, producer, and actor, having graduated from NIDA with a Bachelor in Fine Arts (Acting) in 2020. Jason’s performance credits include a national tour with Poetry in Action, Port (KXT), Forgotten (Parramatta Riverside theatre), Chasing Dick (Qtopia), Bear Hug (Old Fitz) and was the Assistant Director and cast member in the debut production of Jane Franklin and the Rajah Quilt (Theatre Royal Hobart). Jason established his theatre company Peg on a Line Productions in 2022. Jason’s production credits include The Seagull (KXT), Port (KXT), IRL (KXT), The Pigeons (KXT), Bear Hug (Old Fitz), A Parliament of Women (25A Belvoir), The 13th Month (Flight Plath), Hit Me Baby (Flight Path) and Much Stuff (KXT).

  • Deborah Jones

    IRENE NICHOLSON

    Deborah gained a Diploma of performance in 1995, the inaugural graduating class of the Actors College of Theatre & Television. Since then Deborah has not only worked as an actor but also as a director, producer and acting coach. Her acting credits are numerous, some of which include for TV: The Last Anniversary, One Night, The Twelve, Last King of the Cross, Doctor Doctor, Top of the Lake, China Girl, Redfern Now, A Place to Call Home, Love Child, Rake and Murder Call. 
    For Theatre: The Children’s Hour as actor and producer (Old Fitz Theatre) The Swell (Old Fitz Theatre) Albion (Seymour Centre) Macbeth – the installation (Barestage Theatre) Affliction (Legs on the Wall) Stalking the Bogeyman (Old Fitz) The Killing of Sister George (King St Theatre) Mother Clap’s Molly House (New Theatre) Apples & Pears (Old 505 Theatre) and Baby With the Bathwater (Bondi Pavillion) which she also produced. Other producing credits include most notably, the critically acclaimed Hungry (Stables Theatre) which she also commissioned and appeared in. Another producing highlight was gaining sponsorship from the Breast Cancer Association for Tissue (Tap Gallery) which she also directed.
    Other directing credits include The Approach (Flight Path Theatre) Jellyfish (New Theatre) Little Miss Sunshine (New Theatre) Scarecrow for Sydney Fringe 2018, Nell Gwynn (New Theatre) Cosi and Wind in the Willows (Haven Theatre) The Women (New Theatre) Televention (King Street Theatre) 4Play at Slide for Mardi Gras 2011 and many productions for AFTT, JMC Academy and Darlo Drama.
    Deborah is a proud member of MEAA.

  • Saro Lepejian

    CONSTANTINE NICHOLSON

    Made in Syria, partly assembled in Armenia, and sent via express post to Sydney, Australia.
    Saro has previously appeared on the KxT stage in The Bridge (CrissCross, dir. Lucinda Gleeson) and Gundog (Secret House, dir. Anthony Skuse).
    On screen, he is best known for portraying Seb Jacobs in Black Snow (Stan), and has also appeared in Watching You(Stan) and Crime Investigation Australia (Seven).
    His theatre work includes Saints of Damour (Qtopia, dir. Anthony Skuse), Hit Me Baby (Flight Path, dir. Madeleine Diggins), and How to Defend Yourself (Old Fitz, dir. Claudia Barrie).
    Saro is a graduate of the Bachelor of Performing Arts at Actors Centre Australia.

  • Tim McGarry

    PETER NICHOLSON

    Trained in theatre at WAAPA, Tim was a Creative Director of Monkey Baa Theatre Company between 2005-2017. Acting credits: KXT 'Tell Me Before The Sun Explodes', White Box 'Before the Meeting', 'The Campaign', Old Fitz 'The Shadow Box', Sport for Jove 'Cyrano De Bergerac', Moira Blumenthal Productions 'The God of Isaac', 'My Name is Asher Lev', O’Punksy’s 'The Carthaginians', Theatre South 'Macbeth', 'Italian Stories', Company B 'The Information' RTC 'Bouncers', Gordon Frost’s 'Big River The Musical'. Film/TV credits: Wellmania, Rake, All Saints, Home and Away, Underbelly -The Golden Mile, Hacksaw Ridge, Goddess of 1967. Writing credits include: CDP 'Being Beethoven', Brisbane Festival/QPAC 'Trent Dalton’s Love Stories', Queensland Theatre 'Boy Swallows Universe', Christine Dunstan Productions 'Colleen McCullough’s Tim', and over 20 new works for Monkey Baa. Tim’s latest adaptation, 'Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut', will premiere at Black Swan State Theatre Company in 2026.

  • Brendan Miles

    DOCTOR EUGENE DORNE

    Brendan returns to KXT after a successful run of The Bridge earlier this year. His recent theatre credits include Cut Chilli at Old Fitz (2024)
    Labyrinth at Flightpath (2022) and Mercury Poisoning (KXT 2024). This is his third collaboration with Saro and the team at Montague Basement after Animal Farm and Blood on the Cat's Neck, and his second run at Chekhov's Seagull to go with the award winning production of Stupid Fucking Bird in 2018. Brendan's TV/Film credits include appearances in Les Norton, The Deb, Doctor Doctor and Love Child and most notoriously as conman Greg Foster in Mr InBetween. Brendan is also an award winning filmmaker with his current short film Pest Kontrol being recognised in festivals in LA as well in London.

  • Aron Murray

    LIGHTING AND VIDEO DESIGNER

    Aron is a freelance creative aiming to push the envelope in theatrical and performance design.
    Receiving his formal performing arts training from teh National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Aron holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design for Performance as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre and Stage Management.
    Aron enjoys the unique creative opportunities offered in independent theatre, and has worked on productions including Pear Shaped (Theatreworks, 2023), In The Club (Theatreworks, 2023), Arlington (Seymour Centre, 2024), The Player Kings (Seymour Centre, 2025), and Betrayal (The Old Fitz, 2025). 

  • Madelaine Osborn

    INTIMACY CONSULTANT

    Madelaine is a theatremaker living and working on Gadigal, Awabakal and Wiradjuri land. In 2015 she graduated from Charles Sturt University’s B. Comms: Theatre/Media (Distinction) and has worked across a variety of roles and mediums in performance art since.
    Madelaine works primarily as a stage manager, performer and sex worker. It is through the intersection of these roles that she is developing her practice as an Intimacy Consultant in theatre and performance.
    She has assisted in Intimacy consultation and direction on Port (December Theatre Co., dir. Nigel Turner-Carroll 2025), IRL (The Other Theatre, 2025 dir. Eugene Lynch), Chasing Dick (TayoTayo Collective at QTopia, dir. Dax Carnay & James Lau, 2025) and Pigeons (The Other Theatre at KXT, dir. Eugene Lynch 2024). As performer, Madelaine’s credits include RATS by Laneikka Denne (creative development with RaCreates and City of Sydney, dir. Julia Robertson), Blueberry Play by Ang Collins (Lingua Franca Theatre, dir. Adam Deusien 2024) and Spewy by Ang Collins (BBT and Lingua Franca for New Annual Festival, 2023).
    As Stage Manager, Madelaine has worked on Scenes from the Climate Era (Belvoir St Theatre and Arts on Tour regional tour, 2025 dir. Carissa Licciardello), The Gardener’s Apprentice (creative development with Force Majeure, 2025 dir. Danielle Micich) Air Time (Branch Nebula, dir. Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters, 2023, 2025) Highway of Lost Hearts by Mary Anne Butler (Arts on Tour, dir. Adam Deusien), Power (Force Majeure for Biennale of Sydney, 2024 dir. Danielle Micich), Jailbaby by Suzie Miller (Griffin Theatre Company, dir. Andrea James 2023 and 2024), GRLZ by Victoria Haralabidou (dir. Nell Ranney, Development 2023), Sunshine Super Girl (dir. Andrea James, 2022 National Tour).
    Madelaine is passionate about how the sharing of stories connects and challenges us and is delighted to be working with Montague Basement for the first time on their adaptation of The Seagull.

  • Jemima Owen

    STAGE MANAGER

    Jemima began by stage managing community theatre in the Northern Rivers before moving to Sydney to further her career. Her recent credits include Bright Star (Sport for Jove, 2025) and Abigail Williams (STC Wharf 2, 2025). Jemima has recently focussed on swinging onto productions as SM or ASM such as 4000 Miles (STC), IRL (KXT on Broadway) and Pirates of Penzance (Hayes Theatre). She is a NIDA graduate and in her time there worked with directors such as Ong Keng Sen and Carissa Licciardello. Jemima wants to explore a wide variety of live performance, to learn as many methods and from as many sources as possible.

  • Shan-Ree Tan

    ALEX WOLF

    Shan-Ree's mainstage and independent Sydney theatre appearances include his Sydney Theatre Award-nominated dual lead roles in Anchuli Felicia King's epic of Chinese immigration during the Victorian gold rush, The Poison of Polygamy (Sydney Theatre Company / La Boite Theatre), and his Sydney Theatre Award-winning performance as "DHH" in the Australian premiere of David Henry Hwang's acclaimed Yellow Face (for Dinosaurus / KXT). He has also recently appeared in Furious Mattress (for Legit Theatre Co / Belvoir 25A); McGuffin Park, The One, and Nearer the Gods (for Ensemble Theatre); The Ghost Writer (for Crying Chair / Secret House), For the Grace of You Go I (for New Ghosts / Secret House / KXT) and As You Like It (for Sport for Jove). His screen credits include The Twelve and the upcoming US feature film Mr Irrelevant. The Seagull is his long-anticipated first collaboration with Montague Basement and his third show at KXT.

  • Alexandra Travers

    NINA MICHAELS

    Alex has just graduated from NIDA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting (Singing Actor Stream). She has worked over multiple forms of performing arts throughout her career, including Musical Theatre (Les Miserables with Cameron Mackintosh, 2014-2015), productions with Opera Australia, and screen work. She’s looking forward to reprising her role as Nina, having performed the original Chekov production at NIDA in 2023.

SPECIAL THANKS

NIDA
KXT on Broadway
bAKEHOUSE Theatre
Matt Bartlett
Lucy Burke
Callan Colley
Jake Fryer-Hornsby
Imogen Gardam
Lucinda Howes
Ruby Maishman
Fraser Morrison
Bayley Prendergast
Harry Reid
Idham Sondhi
Annie Stafford

Apologies to Kim Ho