In Chekhov’s Seagull, the young poet Treplyov dreams of revolutionising the theatre. He writes a trailblazing text for the woman he loves, the actress Nina. But the performance is a failure and Nina leaves him for his mother’s lover, a famous writer. In this mise en abyme of the 1896 play, Julien Mages establishes the premise of his next piece, which will examine the new and the old, whilst retaining the play’s original themes.
 
Julien Mages (born in 1977) is a Swiss writer, actor and director. He has written a dozen texts for the stage. His writing explores internal division through the focus of mental disorders, marginality and the peril of family relationships. This dissection of human sorrows is put to use in order to explore the intriguing issue of the difficulty of being; for Julien Mages, to question internal division is also to seek its opposite: union. In his work, writing and directing are part of the same process. He is based in Lausanne.