Chekhov Character of the Day

And the winner is... Trigorin!

Woo-hoo!

This is how I know I'm no longer, um, young: I've reread The Seagull twice in the last few days, and Kostya -- whom I (and every other youngish actor with literary-intellectual pretensions) used to fairly yearn to play -- just seemed sort of, well, silly. To be completely frank, he seemed like a whiney little bitch.

But Trigorin -- He's a celebrity, which impresses everybody but him. He knows that it doesn't mean squat, because he feels like a fraud, and all he wants to do is fish and sleep with the yummy little actress, both of which, of course, he does, though neither makes him happy. Sure, he whines a lot too (Waddaya want? It's Chekhov!), but he's a lot less pathetic about it. Trigorin reminds all us anonymous drones who aren't (necessarily) sleeping with yummy little actresses that we'd be just as miserable if we were. (Jude Law is also a reminder of this.)

The coolest cat in the play is actually Dorn, the doctor, but I'm not centered enough to really relate to him. And doesn't remind me of anything.