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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...
Idle Friday Chatter #1

Scene: As Paul heads out to lunch he waits at the traffic lights at Brixton. A police siren suddenly goes off and the woman beside him lets out a shriek

Mad woman on the street: Oh this place I can't stand it it's 'orrible, it's too noisy and I just can't take it anymore. I just can't take it anymore and I think I'm about to lose it. And that woman on the bench over there yeah she just said to me that I need a long hard screw and they are all just taking cocaine and this place is a mess and I just can't take it anymore and I think one more thing and I am just going to lose it I really am I am really just going to really lose it....

Her voice trails off as Paul crosses the street and walks away faster and faster... all the while trying to remember the minute details of monologue...

Idle Friday Chatter #2

Scene: Friday afternoon in the office, F has just returned from the ladies...

F: Ethel from accounts doesn't blend her blush. I saw her in the toilet caking it on and she looks like... She looks like one of those porcelain dolls... It just looks un-natural!
Paul: Unless that is the look she's going for... Either that or whore on the high street...

*not her real name or occupation

Idle Friday Chatter #3

Scene: Friday evening in Soho. Paul is with A (Eurostarguy) and have entered a café for a late night hot chocolate. Entering the café laughing and carrying on (as one does on a sensible Friday evening) A heads to the mens room and Paul sashays over to a seat in the corner and flops down as if he has had a few too many "lemonades" for the evening. As he takes a menu he glances up and sees that his ex is sitting opposite alone and dressed like a chav.

Ex: Hi Paul
Paul: Er hi there.
Ex: You're looking well. Much better than last time I saw you. You looked a bit tired then...

Paul does not return a back-handed compliment as (a) he is not quick witted enough and (b) he thinks his ex looks like shit. In fact Paul does not say much more. Ex eventually gets up and leaves.


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