Emilia ditches her dragons for a Seagull
Emilia Clarke is returning to the london stage after a decade of riding dragons in the television sensation Game Of Thrones.
She will play Nina, the aspiring ingénue in anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Jamie lloyd for his eponymous theatre company.
Clarke played warrior queen Daenerys Targaryen, also known as The mother Of Dragons, for all eight seasons of the award-winning HBO drama.
But the actress, who trained at the Drama Centre in london, has long been keen to tread the boards again, and has been courted by other directors and producers.
She recently met lloyd for what he called ‘a chat and a cup of tea’, during which they discussed playwright anya reiss’s contemporary adaptation of Chekhov’s play, in which the action has shifted from russia to the isle of man.
a group of relatives and friends in various stages of dalliance meet at a country estate owned by Sorin, the ailing brother of irina arkadina, a celebrated theatre star.
Her melancholy, would-bewriter son konstantin resides there with his uncle and other family members and retainers.
konstantin loves Nina, but she’s entranced by the manipulative Trigorin — who happens to be arkadina’s lover.
Chekhov’s characters in The Seagull are up there with the best of Shakespeare’s. lloyd said reiss’s version is ‘more like a riff on Chekhov’s original’: a modern take ‘without being gimmicky’.
The director explained that he’d seen a ‘sensitivity in emilia’s performances . . . a kind of innate warmth and generosity of spirit’. When they met up, lloyd found the emmy-nominated star to be an expert on the russian playwright, and also conversant with reiss’s 2012 take on The Seagull.
‘She’s a real Chekhov nut!’ he told me, adding ‘she had all this insight and passion and i thought: “Yep, she’s the one”. ’ ‘Then and there she said: “let’s do it.”’
Clarke, 33, had been itching for a chance to work on a heavyweight play where she’d be part of an ensemble. The thing about The Seagull is that every part shines.
reiss recently decided to give her adaptation ‘a tweak’ — but sent it back having done a sizeable rewrite.
The Seagull will run from march 11 until may 30 at the Playhouse Theatre, where lloyd’s acclaimed Cyrano de Bergerac, starring James mcavoy, is packing them in now.
The Chekhov will be followed by ibsen’s a Doll’s House, with Jessica Chastain as Nora. Tickets start at £15; lloyd told me he was thrilled that mcavoy, Clarke and Chastain share his ‘passion for making the arts as open and as accessible as possible’.
Clarke’s big- screen outings include Solo: a Star Wars Story and the romantic weepies me Before You and last Christmas, which has taken more than $100 million worldwide to date.
Tickets for The Seagull go on sale today via ATG Tickets.