Summerfolk review – lazy days of passion and privilege at Gorky’s doomed dacha

2026-03-18 - 15:19

Olivier theatre, London Writers Nina and Moses Raine add comedy and raunch to Maxim Gorky’s satire of the holidaying elite In 1898, Maxim Gorky wrote a fan letter to Anton Chekhov. Gorky was just starting out, and the leading light in Russian theatre convinced him to try his hand at plays. Summerfolk was written a few years later as a response to The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s elegiac last play about the downfall of the ruling class. It features languid members of the elite gathering for the summer at a dacha belonging to Sergei Bassov (Paul Ready) and his wife, Varvara (Sophie Rundle). This setting is stunningly designed by Peter McKintosh as the exoskeleton of a house, rather like the construction of a draughtsman’s sketch in the middle of the woods. Continue reading...