THE latest play to be presented at the Chesil Theatre, Winchester, is The Seagull, one of Anton Chekhov’s greatest.

It has been given a new treatment that it doesn’t really need. This is one of Chekhov’s four great plays after all.

But all the actors and actresses appear in their bare feet and there is even dance and movement and a sort of wrestling love scene, plus the modern, obligatory bad language.

This imposition doesn’t sink the play because the characters are strong and deep and there is, all told, a tragic representation of pre-revolutionary Russian life here.

And, luckily for playgoers, there is a lot of highly enjoyable acting.

Alison Whitfield gives it her all as the over the top Arkadina, who loves to be an actress off the stage as well as on, dragging her boyfriend Trigorin around.

Tom Dangerfield excels as the desperately unhappy Konstantin, Arkadina’s son.

Harriet Gandhi is tragic as Nina, the impressionable girl who hopes to be an actress but makes the mistake of relying on Trigorin, a man with an eye for the ladies, to promote her.

Fine performances, also from Katherine Hodgkinson, who has more than an eye on Dr Sorn, Claire Jakeman as Masha, who is unhappy too but settles for a dreary life with the teacher Medvedenko, a very confident portrayal of an affable, safe schoolteacher by Callum Riley.

JOHN DOCHERTY