Written by Anton Chekhov. Adapted by Saro Lusty-Cavallari. Montague Basement in association with Bakehouse Theatre. KXT on Broadway. 21 Nov – 6 Dec, 2025.
For a nearly 130-year-old play, Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is looking pretty spry in the new Australian adaptation now on stage at KXT on Broadway. It’s funny, cutting, and somehow meta-but-not-meta in its commentary on the Sydney theatre scene. I’ll be honest: I cringed at the thought of Covid-set Chekhov, but this may be the first genuinely good pandemic-adjacent play I’ve seen — and also one of the best adaptations of The Seagull. Hats off to everyone involved; this one’s a keeper.
Cast your mind back to March 2020, as Covid locks down Australia for the first time (and, coincidentally, the month I moved back to Australia — but this isn’t about me). Beloved Australian actress Irene Nicolson (Deborah Jones) retreats to her family property along the Bellingen River. She’s joined by her lover Alex (Shan-Ree Tan), a noted author; her son Constantin (Saro Lepejian), a moody young artist in the making; and her brother Peter (Tim McGarry), who completes this accidental bubble of creatives.
Between glasses of pinot gris and BBQs by the water, small tensions begin to take root. When Constantin brings his girlfriend Nina (Alexandra Travers) to stage his avant-garde backyard play, events start to snowball just as Covid cases rise around the country. The question becomes: will this enforced proximity of middle-class artists spark a masterpiece, or just more chaos?
Writer-director Saro Lusty-Cavallari’s script is steeped in local theatre history, and the satire is delicious. It lovingly takes pot-shots at Sydney’s theatrical establishment while also skewering the younger generation pushing, often frustratedly, against long-standing conventions. As Irene name-drops colleagues and venues from across her career, it’s like scrolling through three decades of Australian theatre contacts.
Meanwhile, as Constantin rails against “the system,” Lusty-Cavallari gets to have his cake and eat it too — using Con to voice the criticisms of those who’ve struggled to break onto our main stages, while also allowing us to laugh at them. It’s a rich vein of comedy that brings Chekhov’s scenario vibrantly to life, making this one of the funniest adaptations I’ve seen.
I was almost disappointed there wasn’t a sly nod to STC’s fateful 2023 production of The Seagull, which caused so much needless commotion and cost the company dearly (maybe there was and I just missed it). Still, the humour isn’t there just to wink at us; it opens broader questions about art, authenticity, and the pretensions baked into a form we all keep coming back to.
Moving the action to the early days of the pandemic works far better than expected. It gives the characters a believable reason to be trapped together — and a justification for some of their more extreme decisions. Perhaps it’s the distance of a few years, or maybe the show’s lightness of touch, but the references to that traumatic time don’t sting the way they often have in other Covid-era plays.
More importantly, the adaptation speaks to the present as much as the past. The emotional divide between the weary, established older generation and the frustrated younger cohort feels sharply contemporary. As Nina, Constantin, and Maddie (Talia Benatar) search for a place in a world that seems poorly designed for them, their tragedies feel all too familiar — and all too real.
A terrific cast and a first-rate script make the 2 hr 20 min running time fly by. It’s not every production that earns a round of applause barely 15 minutes in, but Lusty-Cavallari’s The Seagull hits a sweet spot for Sydney theatregoers. It balances levity and depth with impressive ease — a remarkable achievement.
N.B. A warm “Happy Birthday” to KXT on their 10th anniversary. This show is a superb way to step into your second decade.
Cultural Binge 
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