Reviewed by:

• The Seagull on the Sims 4 by Celine Song
• Alisa Zhulina

The Russian writer and doctor Anton Chekhov lived a life marked by infectious diseases and health crises. Chekhov suffered and died from tuberculosis, an illness that reached epidemic levels in the nineteenth century, killing one in seven people. He regularly treated patients during cholera outbreaks. And his Uncle Vanya begins with Doctor Astrov describing the horrors of a typhus epidemic. It is not surprising then that in the COVID-19 era, many theatre artists have turned to Chekhov’s works. From audio broadcasts to Zoom readings, the Chekhovian leitmotifs of isolation, existential despair, and economic precarity resonate not as Russian soul clichés, but rather as the undeniable realities of a contingent and vulnerable world. The most successful of these works has been Canadian playwright Celine Song’s The Seagull on The Sims 4. Combining theatrical elements with video-game gimmicks, this experimental work answered Konstantin Treplev’s call for new forms. Song not only effectively captured Chekhov’s dramatic world in the virtual realm, but also fostered a sense of community, collaboration, and liveness at a time of isolation and social distancing. Her Seagull shows the path toward more accessible theatre (when I re-watched the archived production in early December, the first night’s performance had garnered over 11,000 views). Song’s achievement in remote theatre will no doubt continue to inspire digital performances for years to come.

Described by the New York Theatre Workshop as a “durational installation art piece,” Song’s impressive adaptation transposed Chekhov’s comedy onto the digital platform of the popular life-simulation video game, The Sims. This is not the first time that a Chekhov play has been adapted in a video game. In June 2020, the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia presented an abridged version of The Cherry Orchard in the online game Mine-craft, where actors voiced the avatars. Compared to that rushed version, The Seagull on The Sims 4 was a more absorbing and dynamic experience, even as it took almost six hours stretched over two evenings. What viewers saw when they tuned into Twitch TV was Song building the characters and world of The Seagull and then steering the plot. Since avatars in The Sims speak a fictional language (Simlish) and their dialogue cannot be programmed in advance, we did not get to hear Chekhov’s text. Instead, Song quoted the play’s famous sayings, commented on the actions of her avatars, and discussed every scene with us in great detail so that the show became a performance of our communal knowledge of Chekhov.

Celine Song in The Seagull on The Sims 4 (Treplev and Death). (Photo: Courtesy of New York Theatre Workshop.)

Watching Song’s Seagull, I felt as though I was part of an artistic community at work on a theatre production. Audience members got to collaborate in the creative process through the chat function. Participants could chime in about almost every aspect of the show, from minute costume choices to larger questions of interpretation. Like Song herself, who frequently made perceptive remarks about The Seagull, most viewers knew Chekhov’s oeuvre inside and out, cracking theatre jokes and [End Page 227] offering both silly and sound dramaturgical advice. For example, when Song rotated the different attire options for Treplev’s avatar, the viewers chose black skinny jeans, a tight skull T-shirt, trendy rectangular glasses, and a well-cultivated goatee. Song speculated that Treplev was one of the first “Incels” (“involuntary celibates”), while one viewer imagined Treplev talking for hours about David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. When Arkadina’s turn came, we debated whether a white or pink dress would look more garish. Selecting personality traits often led to debates. Is Treplev a genius or does he just want to be a successful writer? Part of the fun was hearing the different interpretations of the play, including those of playwrights Aleshea Harris...

审核人：

• Celine Song的《模拟人生 4》中的海鸥
• 艾丽莎·朱丽娜

俄罗斯作家兼医生安东·契诃夫过着以传染病和健康危机为标志的生活。契诃夫死于肺结核，这种疾病在 19 世纪达到流行水平，导致七分之一的人死亡。在霍乱爆发期间，他定期治疗病人。他的叔叔万尼亚从阿斯特罗夫医生开始描述斑疹伤寒流行的恐怖。因此，在 COVID-19 时代，许多戏剧艺术家转向契诃夫的作品也就不足为奇了。从音频广播到 Zoom 阅读，契诃夫式的孤立、生存绝望和经济不稳定的主题不是俄罗斯灵魂的陈词滥调，而是一个偶然和脆弱世界不可否认的现实。这些作品中最成功的是加拿大剧作家席琳宋的模拟人生 4 上的海鸥。这项实验性作品将戏剧元素与电子游戏噱头相结合，回应了康斯坦丁·特雷普列夫 (Konstantin Treplev) 对新形式的呼吁。宋不仅有效地捕捉了契诃夫在虚拟世界中的戏剧性世界，而且在孤立和社会疏远的时期培养了一种社区感、协作感和活力感。她的《海鸥》展示了通往更方便剧院的道路（当我在 12 月初重新观看存档的作品时，第一晚的表演已获得 11,000 多次观看）。宋在远程剧院的成就无疑将在未来几年继续激发数字表演的灵感。

被纽约剧院工作室描述为“持续装置艺术作品”，宋的令人印象深刻的改编将契诃夫的喜剧转移到流行的模拟生活视频游戏模拟人生的数字平台上。这不是契诃夫剧本第一次被改编成电子游戏。2020 年 6 月，俄罗斯圣彼得堡的托夫斯托诺戈夫莫斯科大剧院在网络游戏《我的世界》中展示了《樱桃园》的删节版，其中演员为化身配音。与那个匆忙的版本相比，《模拟人生4》中的海鸥是一种更吸引人、更有活力的体验，即使在两个晚上的时间里花费了将近六个小时。观众在收看 Twitch TV 时看到的是宋塑造海鸥的角色和世界，然后控制情节。由于《模拟人生》中的化身使用一种虚构语言（Simlish）并且他们的对话无法提前编程，因此我们没有听到契诃夫的文字。相反，宋引用了剧中的名言，评论了她化身的动作，并与我们详细讨论了每一个场景，使该剧成为我们对契诃夫的共同了解的表演。

模拟人生4（特雷普列夫和死亡）中海鸥的席琳宋。（照片：由纽约剧院工作室提供。）

看着宋的海鸥，我觉得我好像是在戏剧制作工作的艺术社区的一员。观众成员可以通过聊天功能在创作过程中进行协作。参与者几乎可以参与节目的每个方面，从微小的服装选择到更大的解释问题。就像经常对《海鸥》发表感性评论的宋本人一样，大多数观众从里到外都知道契诃夫的作品，开着戏剧笑话和[结束第227页]提供愚蠢和合理的戏剧建议。例如，当宋为 Treplev 的头像轮换不同​​的服装选择时，观众选择了黑色紧身牛仔裤、紧身骷髅 T 恤、时尚的矩形眼镜和精心修养的山羊胡子。Song 推测 Treplev 是最早的“Incels”（“非自愿独身者”）之一，而一位观众想象 Treplev 谈论大卫福斯特华莱士的Infinite Jest几个小时。当轮到阿卡迪娜时，我们讨论了白色或粉红色连衣裙是否看起来更花哨。选择个性特征经常引发争论。Treplev 是天才还是他只是想成为一名成功的作家？部分乐趣在于听到对戏剧的不同解释，包括剧作家阿莱谢·哈里斯的解释……