CHARACTERS

Irina ABKADINA, an actress

Constantine TREPLIEFF, her son

Peter Sorin, her brother

Nina Zarietchnaya, a young girl, the daughter of a rich landowner

Ilia Shamraeff, the manager of SORIN’S estate

Paulina, his wife

Masha, their daughter

Boris Trigorin, an author

Eugene Dorn, a doctor

Simon Medviedenko, a schoolmaster

Jacob, a workman

A COOK

A MAIDSERVANT

The scene is laid on SORIN’S estate.  Two years elapse between the third and fourth acts.

THE SEA-GULL

ACT I

The scene is laid in the park on SORIN’S estate.  A broad avenue of trees leads away from the audience toward a lake which lies lost in the depths of the park.  The avenue is obstructed by a rough stage, temporarily erected for the performance of amateur theatricals, and which screens the lake from view.  There is a dense growth of bushes to the left and right of the stage.  A few chairs and a little table are placed in front of the stage.  The sun has just set.  JACOB and some other workmen are heard hammering and coughing on the stage behind the lowered curtain.

Masha and Medviedenko come in from the left, returning from a walk.

Medviedenko.  Why do you always wear mourning?

Masha.  I dress in black to match my life.  I am unhappy.

Medviedenko.  Why should you be unhappy? [Thinking it over] I don’t understand it.  You are healthy, and though your father is not rich, he has a good competency.  My life is far harder than yours.  I only have twenty-three roubles a month to live on, but I don’t wear mourning. [They sit down].

Masha.  Happiness does not depend on riches; poor men are often happy.

Medviedenko.  In theory, yes, but not in reality.  Take my case, for instance; my mother, my two sisters, my little brother and I must all live somehow on my salary of twenty-three roubles a month.  We have to eat and drink, I take it.  You wouldn’t have us go without tea and sugar, would you?  Or tobacco?  Answer me that, if you can.

Masha. [Looking in the direction of the stage] The play will soon begin.

Medviedenko.  Yes, Nina Zarietchnaya is going to act in Treplieff’s play.  They love one another, and their two souls will unite to-night in the effort to interpret the same idea by different means.  There is no ground on which your soul and mine can meet.  I love you.  Too restless and sad to stay at home, I tramp here every day, six miles and back, to be met only by your indifference.  I am poor, my family is large, you can have no inducement to marry a man who cannot even find sufficient food for his own mouth.