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"New forms, that's what we need!" exclaims Konstantin, a playwright in search of recognition and the hero of The Seagull .

The Flemish theatre company Olympique Dramatique took this at face value by tackling Anton Chekhov's classic, adapted countless times for the stage. Except that this time, the original plot is preserved, but the text is transformed: the megalomaniacal diva Arkadina, the fashionable writer Trigorin, the aspiring actress Nina, all express themselves in Flemish Sign Language.

The experience offered by [seagull] is twofold. First, for the eight actors—some deaf, others hearing—who reinvent the notion of stage performance and communicate through gesture, far removed from verbal conventions. Then, for the audience, who discover a new way of understanding, observing, and simultaneously experiencing the destructive vanities, generational conflicts, and class struggle depicted by the Russian author.