This isn’t the picture that I’d have taken. It’s very lovely, but it’s all about Kristin Scott Thomas in a way that her performance as Arkadina isn’t. The image might suggest that Arkadina is calculating her advantages. Doubtless she is. But that’s because she stands always in the draft of her disadvantages.

We were enormously distracted the night of the performance. The credit market was going to hell. Closer to home, Kathleen would be flying, at the crack of dawn, to London; so we wouldn’t be able to go out after the show and talk it over over dinner. The seats, finally, were tiny; even Kathleen felt cramped.

Director Ian Rickson (and adapter Christopher Hampton) made sure that we saw The Seagull as a comedy. But I didn’t feel the greatness of the comedy until a bit later.

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