The Summer People

On holiday in an idyllic forest retreat, Gorky's "summer people" ebb and flow, arguing, flirting, laughing, gossiping, complaining - until it becomes all too clear that they can't ever really get away from the frantic bustle of modern city life. Though they fish, play chess, picnic, get drunk, put on amateur theatricals, fall in love, even shoot themselves - the arguing is the main thing and it never ends. What they argue about is what we aruge about now, too; how we should be living our lives, or what sort of people we should be. In The Summer People, Maxim Gorky sets in motion an entire community, bringing it to life and then, with unflinching tenderness, dissecting it. The issues of this play are as significant and pertinent now as they were at the premiere, when the conservative intellectuals hiss the playwright. It was a standoff; Gorky came out on stage and hissed back. Two months later, however, the argument of the play spilled into the the revolution of 1905 began, Gorky wrote his next play in Tsarist prison!