While playwrights often adapt classics in order to take creative liberties, Fabián De Cárdenas, artistic director of the new company Dream Theatre Productions, offers audiences a Spanish-language adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull that is deliberately faithful.

Set on a remote country estate located somewhere in contemporary Florida -- as opposed to 19th century Russia -- and featuring Latin American characters, La Gaviota affirms Chekhov's universality and timelessness. . For this production, De Cárdenas hands directorial reins to Ricky J. Martinez, New Theatre artistic director, and plays the role of Gabriel.

Gabriel, a frustrated writer and son of theater diva Adriana, is in love with Nina, a sheltered, aspiring young actress. Nina is enamored of Tomas, a successful novelist, to whom Adriana clings possessively. Marcia marries Modesto in an attempt to exorcise her unrequited love for Gabriel, and so on. The multiple love triangles are riddled with Chekhov's trademark subtext and innuendo, and the emotional outbursts set off sparks.

Martinez and De Cárdenas have assembled a seasoned troupe to take on this challenging play. As Adriana, Nattacha Amador has a magnanimous smile that belies her character's narcissism. Adriana's steely gaze and throaty laugh may easily dissolve into melancholy, but she never lets down her guard.

On the other hand, Nina, played by Carla Sánchez, is an open book. Her transformation from starry-eyed initiate (in love and in theater) to a wild-eyed woman delirious with heartache and disappointment is believable, but the experienced TV and screen actress needs to bring more physicality into her portrayal to fully deliver Nina's character.

De Cárdenas' nuanced portrayal reveals a Gabriel equally driven by anger and love.

In the final act, he channels Chekhovian subtext into a moving display of rage and despair as Gabriel destroys his manuscripts.

Raúl Durán renders a complex Tomas who ultimately mirrors an older version of the restless young Gabriel. As the writer who supposedly has it all, Tomas shows a frustration and longing that reaffirm Chekhov's inclination to leave stories (and characters) unresolved.

Surly expressions and sharp humor befit the gallivanting doctor, Donato (Mario Salas Lanz). Strutting around in a disposition darker than her slinky black dress, Gleybert Tézman is sexy and sardonic as Marcia, a woman who accepts the hand of a professor (Leandro Peraza) in an attempt to forget her love for Gabriel.

Gabriel's steady ally, Uncle Simón (Ramón González-Cuevas) is witty and charming. Jorge Hernández and Ibetti Pérez round out the cast as the bombastic Elio and his repressed wife, Paulina.

Chekhov's masterpiece is as much a treatise on art as it is a story of unrequited love. As Gabriel concludes in the final act, ''More and more I think it's not a question of finding old or new forms. What's important is to let one's writing come directly from the heart.'' The same could be said for performance, and these actors deliver.

In the past couple of years, local companies Teatro en Miami and Teatro Abanico have staged Chekhov-inspired plays to critical acclaim, but this is Miami's first full-length Chekhov production in Spanish. De Cárdenas -- already kicking around names like García Lorca, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller for his next show -- is betting that Miami's bilingual theatergoers won't tire of a good thing. If he can continue to pull in this level of talent, it's a bet worth making.

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