Instrumental Theatre Company’s inaugural production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is the third site-specific staging of the Russian playwright’s work I’ve seen this year, after New Theatre Project’s Uncle Vanya at the Servi-Sure factory in January and Sandbox Theatre Collective’s Three Sisters at United Church of Rogers Park last month. This trend doesn’t upset me, to say the least.

Instrumental’s staging, directed by company artistic director Skylar Grieco, begins outside the Berger Park Cultural Center’s north mansion (originally the home of pharmaceutical executive Samuel Gunder). The lakeside setting provides a felicitous backdrop for the first act, in which aspiring playwright Konstantin (Levi Denton-Hughes) presents his attempt to create “new forms” in theater. He als

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