The Seagull by Anton Chekhov is credited as the first play written with realistic casual dialogue. Love affairs, dysfunctional families, and poetic melancholy abound in this tragicomedy set on a lakefront estate in the Russian countryside. Intellectuals clash with farmers, doctors clash with patients, and writers loath one another in the pursuit of meaningful creation. At the heart of it all is flinching hope, unrequited desire, and the lonely romance of truth.