Entertainment · Books & Arts · 2 hrs ago
Nina turns a Chekhov audition into a study of power and consent
Nina is a play about women auditioning for the role of Nina in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.
Its director, Goran, asks the actors to reveal personal experiences and perform increasingly invasive tasks.
The women want the role and the chance it could bring, while Goran holds power over their prospects.
A writer named Tim watches and reads parts of Chekhov’s play as the audition and the story blur together.
The production uses live-feed cameras and includes scenes that are deliberately difficult to watch.
It explores how men can use power in the arts and how women are pressured to comply.
The ending imagines a shift in power, but the production suggests that this resolution feels less convincing than its grim portrayal of the auditions.
Caroline Williams’ production Nina depicts women auditioning for the role of Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull.
The auditions become increasingly invasive as director Goran makes demands of the performers.
The production explores power and consent through Goran’s control over aspiring actors seeking work.
Live-feed cameras and scenes including a birth and a masturbation scene intensify the audience’s experience.
A final shift in power offers artistic wish fulfilment, but the Guardian review says it rings hollow.
- Who
- Women auditioning for Nina, directed by Goran, played by Rowan Polonski.
- What
- A production shows increasingly invasive auditions that examine power and consent.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- Not stated
- Why
- Goran’s demands expose the power he holds over performers seeking a chance to become stars.
Auditioning women
Goran
Power in the auditions
Auditioning women
The women are eager to please and work, while Goran can make one of them a star.
Goran
Goran directs the auditions and makes increasingly invasive requests, including asking performers to show their trauma.
Consent and boundaries
Auditioning women
The production depicts the women facing demands that become difficult and distressing.
Goran
Goran dismisses the need for an intimacy coordinator while claiming credit for having one in the room.
The women file through to audition for the role of Nina in The Seagull.
Goran’s requests shift from needling questions to increasingly invasive commands.
The production grows in scale and includes a birth scene and a masturbation scene.
The production stages a final switch of power.
- Play
- The Seagull
- Role being auditioned
- Nina
- Director
- Goran, played by Rowan Polonski
- Production
- Co-directed by Caroline Williams and Deborah Pearson
- Auditioning performers
- Maya Bartley O’Dea, Nina Bowers, Samantha Begeman and Gemma Barnett
- Review outlet and date
- Guardian, 2026-10-12
What people are saying
Tell me your trauma
Why would any woman want to be an actor?
Sources
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