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| Estelle Kohler, Ian Richardson, Mike Gwilym, Janet Whiteside, Susan Fleetwood. |
England’s RSC
appeared in New York frequently in the 70s, usually at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with plays both new and old. In
the present instance they were represented by a 1904 Gorky play, but one that
was new to New York, so it wasn’t a true revival.
Gorky’s Enemies
had sparked much admiration when given its New York premiere earlier in the
decade. His Summerfolk demonstrated
even more cogently the playwright’s long-neglected talents, best known mainly
for The Lower Depths.
Character, rather
than plot, predominates in this sensitively evocative picture of a
cross-section of successful members of the Russian bourgeoisie—the descendants
of peasants, not, as in Chekhov, the gentry—at the turn of the 20th century. These folk come from the city every summer to their riverside dachas,
and return to the city in the fall. In this countryside setting, Gorky
introduces his many summerfolk. With great skill, he realizes them
three-dimensionally both as creatures to be scorned and people to be savored.
They represent a class doomed by the corruption represented by their idle
lives, a class soon to be swept away by the tidal wave of the Russian
Revolution. Although Gorky’s political viewpoint clearly is on the side of the
toiling masses, he offers these apathetic beings full opportunity to defend
their way of life.
The three-and-a-half
hour drama, which was superbly staged and acted, takes place in in the environs of a
dacha owned by Bassov (Norman Rodway), a lawyer, who is married to the Nora
Helmer-like Varvara (Estelle Kohler). Their friends and relations, who pass the
time in gossip, love-making, quarreling, and adultery, include familiar figures
reminiscent of Chekhov’s: a jaded novelist, Shalimov (Ian Richardson); Bassov’s
poet-sister, Kaleria Vassilievna (Susan Fleetwood); an engineer, Suslov (Tony
Church); his wife, Yulia Filipovna (Lynette Davies); her lover, Zamislov (David
Suchet); Suslov’s tycoon uncle, Dvoetochie (Sebastian Shaw); a widowed female
doctor, Maria Lvovna (Margaret Tyzack); Varvara’s clownish brother, Vlass
Mikhailich (Mike Gwilym), and a host of others.
John Simon reveled in
what he called a “wonder” of an event in which “the lofty ideas of a playwright
are given magnificent embodiment in a remarkable production” of a “rarer-than-rare
play.” “Here Gorky . . . has an exquisite sense of atmosphere, of a social and
psychological climate conveyed neither through an unusual plot nor through a
significant change in a principal character . . . , but through the subtle yet
volatile interaction of a very considerable number of persons used like
instruments in a concerto grosso,” he added.
Calling it a sequel
to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard,
Clive Barnes loved the play’s blend of “philosophy, humor and honesty,” calling
it “marvelous,” a word also used by Douglas Watt, who forgave its “blunt,
meandering and derivative” style because it was so ‘brimming with vitality” in
both the writing and performances. “The cumulative effect . . . is quite
powerful,” noted Edwin Wilson, who was never once bored during the lengthy
performance, and who wished he could continue to live with Gorky’s people.
There was universal
acclamation for what Simon deemed the “almost flawlessly unified performing” of
the ensemble, although Estelle Kohler’s exquisite portrait of the disillusioned
Varvara gathered the greatest attention. David Jones’s reputation as a director
of Gorky was immeasurably enhanced, and the set and costume designs of O’Brien
and Firth added enormously to the work’s quality.
The Royal Shakespeare
Company was rewarded with an OBIE Special Citation for its contribution,
produced in repertory with Love’s
Labour’s Lost.
