The Théâtre des Capucins shows Aaron Posner’s adaptation of Chekov’s “The Seagull”: “Stupid Fucking Bird” is a rejoicing spectacle, actualising the narrative about how to be an artist or an actor in the 21th century.

(©Boshua)

Chekov’s “The Seagull” is one of those classic pieces you can hardly ignore, because it’s got everything a good play needs: tragical love stories (A loves B, who is desperately infatuated with C, that secretly longs for D, etcetera), a play-within-a-play, insane intergenerational relationships, drama and suicide in the end. So, it’s no wonder that more than a hundred years later the cry of the seabird still echoes and that the American playwright Aaron Posner wrote his own adaptation of the play in 2013 – a play that since then got good reviews and has been touring worldwide, and has now arrived in the grand-duchy.

Under the direction of Anne Simon an international cast of Luxembourgish, English and American actors, “Stupid Fucking Bird” comes along as a satirical and self-criticizing spectacle that not only embraces everyday problematics by updating the Russian masterpiece, but takes us a step further into a metaphysical questioning of existence and its sense after all. The “play-within-a-play”, is not a symbolical avant-garde piece as in the original, but just another senseless performance about existence – like the thousands we know, made by more or less talented artists or wannabes. And the talented Mister Trigorian is just another best-selling author whose books mainly consist of mainstream adapted banalities. Both Posner and Simon sucked out the pathos of the original piece to deliver a stripped naked review of human relationships within the chekovian micro-society – and it’s a success.

Even if the play lasts for two hours without interruption, there’s no boredom in sight for the public. On the contrary, even if everybody knows how it will end, the direction and the actors’ play guarantee a tension that lasts until the final gunshot. And in surplus, there are a lot of hints that apply to the local art scene and are both critical of how society and – of course – the ministry of Culture are dealing with it, as of the art world itself. So, whether you’re working for the ministry or a cultural institution or even if you don’t: go grab a seat for “Stupid Fucking Bird”, it’s definitely worth the ride!

Last shows on January 22th and 23th.