Synopses & Reviews
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was hailed by Anton Chekhov as the voice of his time. These five plays offer a panoramic view of pre-revolutionary Russian life and are here given accurate playable translations by Jeremy Brooks and Kitty Hunter-Blair.
The Lower Depths: "It is a raw and indignant play, intermittently preachifying, bursting with talent, full of that combination of brutality and sentimentality which characterizes so much of Gorky's work."—Sunday Times
Summerfolk: "That volatility of mood that is the keynote of Russian drama ... the emotional fullness demanded by this rich, yeasty, madly neglected play."—Guardian
Children of the Sun: "These half-seeing, self-absorbed, troubled people are sharing a picnic on top of an anthill that runs ten miles deep and cannot explore anywhere but up ... 1917 must come."—New Statesman
Barbarians: "The effect is of richness, abundance, and unpredictability. The tone veers from the comic to the painful, the absurd to the ugly."—The Times
Enemies: "Gorky's play is a real discovery, the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian Revolution."—Observer
Synopsis
Modern accurate and stageable translations of five of Gorky's plays
This volume includes Gorky's major works for the theatre. The Lower Depths, first staged by the Moscow Art theatre in 1902, portrays a cast of down and outs living in the underbelly of Russian society; Summerfolk depicts a society after the disintegration of feudalism with a new class of businessmen, intellectuals and professionals. Children of the Sun was completed in prison in 1905 and premiered in St Petersburg in the same year, St Petersburg critic Alexander Kugel wrote: "If Summerfolk boxed the ears of the intelligentsia, the Children of the Sun spits in their face"; Barbarians looks at the tragedy of an individual caught between opposing forces in a society on the brink of revolution - Lenin's future Minister of Culture, Alexander Kugel wrote: "Gorky helps us to understand and assess the mighty phenomenon of this war between two forms of barbarism through the direct experience of real people"; Enemies looks at the struggle between workers and industrialists and has been described as "the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian revolution" (Observer)
About the Author
Imprisoned for his revolutionary activities and championed by chekhov, Maxim Gorky (1868 - 1936) had his first plays produced by the Moscow Art Theater in 1902. Chekhov wrote, 'Gorky is the first in Russia and the world at largs to have expressed contempt and loathing for the petty bourgeoisie and he has done it at the precise moment when Russia is ready for protest'.
Table of Contents
The lower depths -- Summerfolk -- Children of the sun -- Barbarians -- Enemies.