Seagull: True Story

Important Information

About Seagull: True Story

MART and Wild Yak present Seagull: True Story at the Marylebone Theatre following a hugely successful sold out Off-Broadway run at La Mama this Spring. This wildly inventive, darkly comic and politically charged remix of Chekhov’s classic blends autobiographical drama, Chekhovian themes and biting satire.

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts a shadow of censorship over Kon’s free-spirited reimagining of Chekhov’s The Seagull, the production is stripped down to a state-approved shell of its former self.
Desperate to save his vision and his livelihood, Kon flees to New York.
Torn between his Russian roots and a confounding American paradise, he tries to redefine himself as an artist, only to discover that regaining true freedom takes more than just a few thousand miles…

Seagull: True Story is inspired by recent events in Molochnikov’s own life. An award-winning director in Russia, Molochnikov left Russia in 2022 after speaking out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He cannot return home. Of the experience, Molochnikov says, “I never thought I'd have the courage to stage a play about myself, but the war has changed life so drastically that in the past three years, I've been living and reliving a full-fledged
drama. It is the most important thing I’ve ever had to do, a story of a world of creativity bursting before my eyes, of the impossibility of freely creating art and the necessity to fight for its freedom in both Russia and the US!"

This bold and playful theatrical experience is packed full of ‘comedic mayhem that makes the audience roar’ (Stage and Cinema), using song, multimedia, absurdist humour and layered metatheatre to explore the fragility of art, identity and freedom under authoritarian regimes. Molochnikov leads a stellar cast in a story of love, betrayal and the struggle to make meaningful art in a world where the truth depends on who’s in charge.

This is a provocative and poignant show about survival that offers a deeply personal exploration of displacement, dissent and the power of live performance in the face of oppression.

What ultimately emerges in Seagull: True Story is not just a tale of exile and reinvention, but a portrait of a director undeterred by the collapse of his artistic infrastructure…
Through humor, satire, and scrappy ingenuity, Seagull: True Story reveals the true cost of creative freedom, not as a noble abstraction, but as a daily, grinding negotiation with power, relevance, and the rent (TheaterScene).