The Seagull was first translated into English for a performance at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow, in November 1909.[42] Since that time, there have been numerous translations of the text—between 1998 and 2004 alone there were 25 published versions.[42] In the introduction to his own version, Tom Stoppard wrote: "You can't have too many English Seagulls: at the intersection of all of them, the Russian one will be forever elusive."[43] In fact, the problems start with the title of the play: there's no sea anywhere near the play's settings, so the bird in question was in all likelihood a lake-dwelling gull such as the common gull (larus canus), rather than a nautical variant. In Russian both kinds of birds are named chayka, simply meaning "gull", as in English. However, the title persists as it is much more euphonious in English than the much shorter and blunter "The Gull", which comes across as too forceful and direct to represent the encompassing vague and partially hidden feelings beneath the surface. Therefore, the faint reference to the sea has been seen as a more fitting representation of the intent of the play.
Some early translations of The Seagull have come under criticism from modern Russian scholars. Marian Fell's translation, in particular, has been criticized for its elementary mistakes and total ignorance of Russian life and culture.[42][44] Peter France, translator and author of the book The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, wrote of Chekhov's multiple adaptations:
Proliferation and confusion of translation reign in the plays. Throughout the history of Chekhov on the British and American stages we see a version translated, adapted, cobbled together for each new major production, very often by a theatre director with no knowledge of the original, working from a crib prepared by a Russian with no knowledge of the stage.[45]
Notable English translations
| Translator | Year | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Calderon | 1909 | Glasgow Repertory Theatre | This is the first known English translation of The Seagull. This translation premiered at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow, on 2 November 1909, also directed by Calderon.[46] |
| Marian Fell | 1912 | Charles Scribner's Sons | First published English language translation of The Seagull in the United States, performed at the Bandbox Theatre on Broadway by the Washington Square Players in 1916.[47] Complete text from Project Gutenberg here.[48] |
| Fred Eisemann | 1913 | Poet Lore | Appeared in Volume 26, Number 1 (New Year's 1913) of Poet Lore magazine[49][50] |
| Constance Garnett | 1923 | Bantam Books | Performed on Broadway at the Civic Repertory Theatre in 1929,[51] directed by Eva Le Gallienne. |
| Stark Young | 1939 | Charles Scribner's Sons | Used in the 1938 Broadway production starring Uta Hagen as Nina,[52] as well as the 1975 film directed by John Desmond.[53] |
| Elisaveta Fen | 1954 | Penguin Classics | Along with Constance Garnett's translation, this is one of the most widely read translations of The Seagull.[54] |
| David Magarshack | 1956 | Hill & Wang | Commissioned for the 1956 West End production at the Saville Theatre, directed by Michael Macowan, and starring Diana Wynyard, Lyndon Brook, and Hugh Williams.[55] |
| Moura Budberg | 1968 | Sidney Lumet Productions | Commissioned and used for the 1968 film directed by Sidney Lumet.[56] |
| Tennessee Williams | 1981 | New Directions Publishing | Williams' "free adaptation" is titled The Notebook of Trigorin. First produced by the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company in 1981, the United States premier occurred at the Cincinnati Playhouse in 1996, starring Lynn Redgrave as Madame Arkadina. Williams was still revising the script when he died in 1983.[57] |
| Tania Alexander & Charles Sturridge | 1985 | Applause Books | Commissioned and used for the 1985 Oxford Playhouse production directed by Charles Sturridge and Vanessa Redgrave. |
| Michael Frayn | 1988 | Methuen Publishing | Translated Nina's famous line "I am a seagull," to "I am the seagull," as in the seagull in Trigorin's story. This was justified by Frayn, in part, because of the non-existence of indefinite or definite articles in the Russian language.[58] |
| Pam Gems | 1991 | Nick Hern Books | |
| David French | 1992 | Talonbooks | Used in the 1992 Broadway production by the National Actors Theatre at the Lyceum Theatre, directed by Marshall W. Mason and featuring Tyne Daly, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney, and Jon Voight.[59] |
| Paul Schmidt | 1997 | Harper Perennial | Used in the 2008 off-Broadway production at the Classic Stage Company, starring Dianne Wiest, Alan Cumming, and Kelli Garner.[60] |
| Tom Stoppard | 1997 | Faber and Faber | Premiered at the Old Vic theatre in London on 28 April 1997. Its United States premiere in July 2001 in New York City drew crowds who sometimes waited 15 hours for tickets.[61] |
| Peter Gill | 2000 | Oberon Books | |
| Peter Carson | 2002 | Penguin Classics | |
| Christopher Hampton | 2007 | Faber and Faber | Used in the Royal Court Theatre's 2008 production of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson and featuring Peter Sarsgaard, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mackenzie Crook and Carey Mulligan.[62] |
| Benedict Andrews | 2011 | Currency Press | Used in the 2011 production at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre, starring Judy Davis, David Wenham, Emily Barclay, Anita Hegh, Gareth Davies, Dylan Young and Maeve Dermody, adapted for an Australian setting, with minor dialogue changes.[63][64] |
| Anya Reiss | 2014 | Premiered at the Southwark Playhouse.[65] | |
| David Hare | 2015 | Faber and Faber | Presented at the Chichester Festival Theatre in tandem with Hare's translations of Platonov and Ivanov.[66] |
