Artists, lovers, and a dead seagull on a country estate. Chekhov's first major play flopped at its Petersburg premiere in 1896; two years later Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre revived it and modern theater was born. The seagull became the theater's logo. The play is about unrequited everything: love, ambition, talent, recognition.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.