When Anton Chekhov completed The Seagull in 1895, few could have predicted the remarkable life this play would lead.

When watching The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, one of the first things an audience member might think is, “why aren’t these characters saying what they mean?” Chekhov insisted his plays were comedies. That can surprise audiences who experience The Seagull’s unrequited love, artistic frustration, and quiet heartbreak. But his genius lies in how life’s deepest longings are tucked inside ordinary conversation, and drama lives between the lines.

In his own words, Shepard sought with this play to “destroy the idea of the American family drama”. But in his attempt to destroy the idea of the drama, he drew attention to the belief throughout the country that the American family had already been destroyed.

Indeed, pride manifests in Torch Song not as a feeling to be celebrated once a year but as a routine practice, a strength that Arnold and all queer people must regularly conjure in order to keep going in a world that is often hostile to their existence.