Cate Blanchett in The Seagull [Marc Brenner]

DUNCAN Macmillan and Thomas Ostermeier’s modern take on Chekhov’s The Seagull is a joy from start to finish. The stellar ensemble cast’s truthful performances breathe new life into the characters.

The play opens with Medvedenko (Zachary Hart), reinvented as a factory worker, arriving on a quadbike before playing a Billy Bragg number on an electric guitar.

Cate Blanchett plays Irina Arkadina, a vain, ageing actress, who returns to her family’s country estate, accompanied by her lover Trigorin (Tom Burke), an acclaimed, self-regarding writer.

They are there to visit Arkadina’s ailing brother Sorin (Jason Watkins) and son Konstantin (Kodi Smit-McPhee), an aspiring playwright.

Konstantin stages an experimental work complete with virtual reality headsets (hilarious) set beside a lake and starring their neighbour Nina (Emma Corrin) with whom he is besotted. Arkadina dismisses it as “immersive Cirque du Soleil”.

Ostermeier keeps the tone light right up until the final act. Blanchett’s Arkadina prances around, boasting she can still play a character as young as Shakespeare’s Juliet, tap dances and does the splits to show off her youthful exuberance.

Alongside unfulfilled art is frustrated love, which by the end reaches crisis point. Medvedenko loves Masha (Tanya Reynolds) who yearns for Konstantin. He is desperate for Arkadina’s maternal affection, and is heartbroken when Trigorin seduces his beloved Nina.

Characters appear from, eavesdrop or lurk in Magda Willi’s evocative thicket of reeds.

Unmissable.

Until April 5
www.theseagullplay.co.uk