In this, the darker, edgier sequel to last week’s blog, Andy McLoughlin reviews PanPan theatre’s adaptation of the Chekov classic, “The Seagull”, titled “The Seagull and Other Birds”, seen with the Young Critics programme as part of this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival

Anton Chekov was a highly popular Russian comedy writer in the nineteenth century. People would come to his shows from miles around to be made laugh by his shows. Unfortunately, tastes have changed and his plays, if performed as originally intended, probably wouldn’t elicit the same reactions today.  Some people would argue that performing these shows directly translated, exactly as performed at the time isn’t the best way to honour his memory, and instead what is important is to reflect the spirit and intentions of his original work, comedy and all.  To these people I say “Balderdash!” The only correct way to recreate a text is with pedantic…