Caroline Williams’ production Nina follows performers auditioning for the role in Chekhov’s The Seagull. The setting places the expectations of an audition beside a director’s increasingly intrusive demands, making the process itself the centre of the drama.
Rowan Polonski plays the director Goran, while Maya Bartley O’Dea, Nina Bowers, Samantha Begeman and Gemma Barnett portray the women appearing before him. Live-feed cameras form part of his proposed theatrical method.
The Guardian’s review describes the work as unsettling and focused on the imbalance of power within artistic institutions. It considers how apparently ordinary requests can become coercive, while the fictional framing keeps the account distinct from a report about a specific real-world audition or allegation.
