“Daniel embodied the idea that the work was not really separable from our lives,” MacIvor said. His friend and frequent collaborator Daniel MacIvor said Brooks took the same approach to his work and life - one that centred creativity and communion. I don’t quite know what kind yet.”Īt the Harold Pinter theatre, London, until 10 September.TORONTO - Daniel Brooks, a renowned Canadian theatre director who spent his decadeslong career pushing against the bounds of his medium, has died at 64.Ī representative for his family said Brooks died surrounded by loved ones in Toronto on Monday, five years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. As Dorn concludes of Konstantin’s play: “It made an impression. The spell is broken after the interval, when it begins to feel too still, but this is a maverick show that, like Oklahoma! at the Young Vic, proves how dangerous and daring a revival can be. There is sometimes a Beckettian focus on voice, and on facial expressions, which creates a hypnotic focus and we lean in to catch these characters’ intimacies. Sophie Wu’s show-stealing Masha – one of several characters contending with Chekhov’s typically tortuous pangs of unrequited love – brings emo-teen darkness to the tragicomedy with perfect, deadpan deliveries. Meanwhile, the comic roles are uniformly excellent: Jason Barnett’s estate manager, Shamrayev, simmers with anger at these indolent townies.

Daniel Monks’ Konstantin emanates a morose sleepiness and there is a charismatic supporting turn from Robert Glenister but Sorin feels like too small a part for him – we wish for more and more. But it never stops fascinating and in the scenes that work best, this show is brave, compelling and powerful: when Konstantin’s actor mother, Arkadina, tells him he is a “nobody” when she begs her lover, Trigorin, to stay with her when Nina and Trigorin simply sit and stare into each other’s eyes at the back of the stage, while a scene occurs at the front.Ĭlarke is the biggest commercial star and convinces opposite Tom Rhys Harries’s Adonis-like Trigorin but the larger performance comes from Indira Varma as the highly strung mother, who seems the most alive character on stage. Is it all concept and no solid effects? Sometimes it does feel like we are watching The Seagull With Zombies – mannered, frustrating, both too drawn and drawled out. Were it not so smoothly staged, this might be a rehearsal read-through or scratch night – or even a drama-school experiment. Photograph: Marc BrennerĪfter the interval, the walls are partly removed as if the few traditional theatrical elements that feature are slowly deconstructing around the actors.

Sometimes they sound dreamy or drunk … l to r, Indira Varma (Arkadina), Tom Rhys Harries (Trigorin), Jason Barnett (Shamrayev) and Sara Powell (Polina).

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