Review: SUMMERFOLK at National Theatre, Olivier

Robert Hastie directs Gorky's simmering summer idyll set in 1905 amidst the dacha of the Russian moneyed classes where they decant in the hot months to cool off and relax from their exhausting lives as St Petersburg city dwellers. Here in the country, they cavort, gossip, drink copiously and talk endlessly (between picnics, fishing excursions, taking dips in the lake, walks in the forest and hosting dinner parties) of their need to break free from the boredom of their lives. Meanwhile the couple of grubby individuals who collectively represent the millions in serfdom, initially loom ominously in the shadows as a prelude of the uprising to come. When they do speak, it is akin to watching an exchange between Vladimir and Estragon as with deadpan expressions, they bemoan the unedifying lot who pitch-up each summer and appear to do little more than make a lot of noise and leave a mess.

Whilst it is widely lauded as a frenetic ensemble piece, there are key characters who will always need to make an impression if the whole is to have been deemed successful. Alex Lawther as Vlass delivers his adorable stock-in-trade earnestness, all ruffled hair ready for tousling by the object of his affections, the much older Maria Lvovna played with beautiful restraint by Justine Mitchell when all she yearns for is emotional and physical abandon. With equal restraint Sophie Rundle suffers the series of ridiculous romantic ovations from various men as Varvara Bassova whilst enduring the unthinking idiocy and tantrums of her infuriating husband Sergei played by Paul Ready. Elsewhere Gwyneth Keyworth squeezes the most out of Olga Dudakova the harried and despondent mother of exhausting children, who whenever she joins the adults for respite, manages to misjudge the environment and put her foot in it.

The enormity of the Olivier space hasn't daunted set designer Peter McKintosh whose huge skeletal house frame for the first couple of acts invites the audience inside, and later the pylons become tree trunks for the woodland glade scene during which cast members hitch up their crinolines and paddle in the waters which sit beneath the planking and surround the actors.

The final scene during which close proximity irritability causes explosive arguments and where lines are irrevocably crossed, serves to remind each of us in the audience, how little we like most of these characters… and perhaps why a dozen years later the downtrodden masses erupted and overthrew the lot of them.

SUMMERFOLK continues at the Olivier, National Theatre until 29th April and has a running time just shy of 3 hours including a 20min interval.

Summerfolk Tickets