Uncle Vanya reducing the cast-list from almost two dozen down to nine, changing the climactic suicide of "The Wood Demon" into the famous failed homicide of "Uncle Vanya", and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic, less final resolution—critics such as Donald Rayfield, Richard Gilman, and Eric Bentley have sought to chart the development of Chekhov's dramaturgical method through the 1890s. Rayfield cites recent scholarship suggesting Chekhov revised "The Wood Demon" during his trip to the island of Sakhalin, a prison colony in Eastern Russia, in 1891. A garden in Serebryakov's country estate. Astrov and Marina discuss how old Astrov
The Seagull "Hamlet"). There are many allusions to Shakespearean plot details as well. For instance, Treplyov seeks to win his mother back from the usurping older man Trigorin much as Hamlet tries to win Queen Gertrude back from his uncle Claudius. "The Seagull" was first translated into English for a performance at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow, in November 1909. Since that time, there have been numerous translations of the text—from 1998 to 2004 alone there were 25 published versions. In the introduction of his own version, Tom Stoppard wrote: "You can't have too many English Seagulls: at the intersection of all of