freely adapted from Anton Chekhov
Directed by Yana Ross
Translated from the Russian by Elina Finkel
in an adaptation by Yana Ross
Premiere on 23/1/2026 at the Schauspielhaus
Everyone is so nervous!
As young, unsuccessful artists, they believe they can shatter all conventions and—finally, successfully—lose faith in their work. They aspire to lead significant lives in the world's centers and bravely settle for provincial life. They want to reform society and become actors, teachers, or administrators, disillusioned with themselves. They search for "the one," the great love, and ultimately marry someone else without passion. Almost all the characters Anton Chekhov assembles in "The Seagull" have arrived somewhere. But none of them have reached their true destination. They form a procession of unhappily loving people, who fail grandly or meekly. It is a tragedy, it is a comedy.
Director Yana Ross is staging her first production in Hamburg. Since early childhood, this cosmopolitan has led a nomadic life, fertile for her artistic work: born in Moscow to a Ukrainian-Polish-Jewish family, raised in the Baltic states and the USA, she has lived and worked in various European countries ever since. Most recently, she spent five years as part of the artistic direction team at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. She continually revisits the texts of Anton Chekhov: no other author sequences the DNA of the human soul as precisely as he does. Together with the ensemble, she delves deeply into the original works, examines Chekhov's drama for its personal points of reference, and reinterprets it for the present day.
With: Paul Behren, Daniel Hoevels, Pascal Houdus, Josefine Israel, Henni Jörissen, Josef Ostendorf, Angelika Richter, Bettina Stucky and Samuel Weiss
Directed by Yana Ross
Stage: Bettina Meyer
Costumes: Ulrike Gutbrod
Music: Knut Jensen
Lighting: Susanne Ressin
Dramaturgy: Matthias Günther
