Reviews

Very good play. The point is that they did it, the curtain rose to reveal the city behind them—that is, those struggles and hopes in the play, and all of a sudden they were no longer words, specific people, specific lives, and not only do we have to keep rehearsing Chekhov, but we also give the reason for that, which is very good—that is, it's still happening.

Xie Xie, Damai

It's the first time I've seen an all-girl cast.

Echoing: the Seagull is a show that five small-town friends once rehearsed together. The first half is about five teenage girls who have grown up and left the town where they grew up, and then years later meet again for a funeral in the auditorium where they first rehearsed. The second half is a wedding, which seems precious and sad amidst the Tencent conference connection, if any signal, and the hyped-up phone calls from clients. "Life is like a garbage can, you never know what's in it, but it'll always ... buckle over your head."

If it were you, would you choose to be defeated by reality or stick to your ideals?

I can’t eat anymore!, RED

The production was excellent, echoing the drama I had imagined , from the opening build-up to the genuine voice at its core. The lived-in lines are very appropriate, which is part of the excellence; when watching this type of work, I'm always concerned that the form will get in the way of the power that's supposed to be there, but here I could detect some sort of balance, or rather an effort at balance.

CheeseFac, RED

The Feminist Work I Want to See 

At first, I didn't have high expectations. Because retellings of classics are hard to tell, and this is especially true of a text like The Seagull, with its many characters, its tight, sprawling story, and the fact that it deals with artistic performance and artistry, I was afraid that she'd fall into the rut of the disease-free , and I was really desperate to hear what the girls would say. Because even if they don't say it loudly enough, even if they don't say it brilliantly enough, I want to hear what the girls want to say, starting with myself. But this play, which I would describe as a "She," was a complete surprise to me. In fact, if you ask me what kind of feminist theatre I'd like to see... it's her.

TheatrePro

Echoing: the Seagull is based on Chekhov's The Seagull, a story about five girls graduating from a county high school on a summer day a few years after graduation. It's definitely a pretty painstakingly laborious production, and the sincerity of it does echo very beautifully between the actors, and between the actors and the audience. 

Ferrous Phosphide, RED

About Echoing: the Seagull

Echoing: the Seagull is a rewrite by the Sleepy-less Ensemble based on Chekhov's The Seagull. They brought the story to China in 2023 and rewrote it around five young girls around the age of 25, showcasing the confusion and anxiety that pervades contemporary Chinese society, as well as the fear of abstract ideals that people still have when faced with reality. 

The play still discusses the eternal question: what is the essence of life?  And this "life" is based on contemporary China.

Credits

Adapted from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Playwright: Hu Xuanyi

Director: He Qi

Cast: He Qi, Xu Jie, Hou Ying, Wang Yimeng, Zhang Chengzi

Set Designer: Hu Yanjun

Set Design Assistants: Wang Wei, Li Haiyi

Lighting Designer: Feng Ling

Composer/Live Musician: Huang Kai

Mutimedia Designer: Yue Yuan

Graphic Designer & Mutimedia executive: Xuan Yi

Producer: Chen Yingzhe

Stage Managers: Cao Yiran,Tang yan

About He Qi

He Qi, a member of the Sleepy-less Ensemble, works primarily as a director. After graduating from Fudan University with a degree in Chinese, she studied playwriting at National Taiwan University, trained by Chi Wei-Jan and Tong Wei-ger. Her works have participated in many theater festivals in China.

About The Sleepy-less Ensemble

Reality is complex and multi-dimensional. Creation is the interpretation of reality. Sleepy-less Theater is a land for creation out of nothing, a playground for storing the present and raging against reality, a public institution, and a kind of resistance. 

Our works to date have included Deduction of Natural Death (2018), The Cat (2021), Me and My Private XinHua Dictionary (2022), Echoing: the Seagull (2023), Naoko (2023), The Affairs (2024), Mirror (2024).