Emma Corrin, hot from playing villainous Cassandra Nova in Deadpool & Wolverine, will join Cate Blanchett in the eagerly awaited new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Barbican Theatre in 2025.
Another addition to an already sizzling company is Kodi Smit-McPhee, who shot to fame in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. He also appears with an incandescent Angelina Jolie in Netflix’s awards-season hopeful Maria.
It’s a family reunion, of sorts, for Blanchett and McPhee. They play mother and son in Alfonso Cuarón’s brilliant seven-part Apple TV+ drama Disclaimer, which premieres on the streamer October 11. The two Australian-born actors also play related characters in The Seagull: Blanchett takes on the part of theatrical grand dame Irina Arkadina and McPhee plays her son Konstantin.
Cate Blanchett at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
The Seagull‘s director Thomas Ostermeier chose Corrin, who shot to fame with their acclaimed portrayal of Lady Diana Spencer in The Crown, to play Nina.
Konstantin’s in love with her. However, the ambitious ingenue sees Trigorin, Arkadina’s lover, as a more useful stepping stone.
Trigorin will be played by the already announced Tom Burke (Mad Max: Furiosa). The play marks a reunion for Burke and Blanchett as well; they also star in Steven Soderbergh’s forthcoming movie Black Bag.
Preview performances of The Seagull begin February 26, with an official opening night set for March 6. The limited six-week season continues until April 5.
Ostermeier has also courted Priyanga Burford (Industry, No Time to Die) to play Polina; Zachery Hart (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders) as Medvedenko; Paul Higgins (Line of Duty) as Shamrayev; Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education, The Decameron) as Masha; and Jason Watkins (The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, Trollied) as Arkadina’s wistful brother Sorin.
German-born Ostermeier is a giant of German theatre, recognized for his innovative and often iconoclastic stage productions. The new version of The Seagull has been written by playwright Duncan MacMillan (Trigonometry) and Ostermeier.
Blanchett follows a long line of theatrical greats, such as Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Joan Plowright, Penelope Wilton and Kristin Scott-Thomas, who have performed Chekhov’s Arkadina, a stage goddess whose life offstage is as drama-filled as it is onstage.
Blanchett, a two-time Academy Award winner, was last seen treading the boards in London when she starred in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other at the National Theatre in 2019.
Equally, younger thespians have gravitated to the role of Nina, as Corrin has. Blanchett played her too, in Neil Armfield’s production of The Seagull at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre in 1997. Helen Mirren played Nina in 1975, Natasha Richardson in 1985, Helen McCrory in 1994 and Carey Mulligan in 2007.
Corrin has become a regular presence in London theatre. She was last on stage here in 2022, dazzlingly so, in Michael Grandage’s admirable production of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. They made their debut in Anna X at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2021.
Their upcoming projects includes Robert Eggers’ awards-season gothic movie Nosferatu, and a 2025 edition of Black Mirror.
The production of The Seagull is produced by Benjamin Lowry and Emily Vaughan-Barrett’s Wessex Grove production company and Gavin Kalin Productions in association with the Barbican.
The set design is by Magda Willi, costumes by Marg Horwell and sound design by Tom Gibbons, with casting by Jim Carnahan and Liz Fraser.