Summerfolk review: Gorky's biting class satire is more relevant now than ever

Review: Summerfolk at the National turns Gorky sweary - it’s trying far too hard

Four-letter words and modern slang are meant to make this revival accessible, but something has been lost as a result

Summerfolk review: Gorky's biting class satire is more relevant now than ever

A large group of petty bourgeoisie clothed in white sit beside a lake in the heat. They drink, they complain and they argue, leaving a trail of chaos in their wake and expecting the working people of the resort they summer in to pick up after them.While you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a scene from The White Lotus, this is, in fact, Summerfolk, a play written by Maxim Gorky in 1904.Give the modern prevalence of "eat the rich" films (Parasi…

Summerfolk – National Theatre

Does a vacation sound nice? Would a countryside retreat relax you? Would you be able to take your mind off of work or the news or the fact that the waitress delivering your sandwiches hates your guts? Summerfolk, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s 1904 Dachniki, poses all of these questions as gracefully as a studio photographer on family portrait day with a set and costumes by Peter McKintosh very much invoking that particular environment. An array…

Review: Summerfolk at The National

We are in early 20th Century Russia, a time when comfortably off city-dwellers are flocking to the countryside to rustic ‘dachas’ that they rent from locals, operating an open-house policy that sees their friends breeze in and breeze out, writes Eleanor Thorn.   Summer has arrived and Sergei (Paul Ready) and Varya (Sophie Rundle), the host “dachniki” or ‘dachniks’ as per the original title of the play, are expecting friends and relations.  An om…