Jennifer Ehle and Michael Bryant in Summerfolk
It is almost closing time for the year's finest production, Trevor Nunn's revival of a worthy sequel to The Cherry Orchard. While Chekhov's masterpiece ended with the destruction of both the trees of its title and the genteel way of life they represented, Gorky's Summerfolk involves the new middle classes living in the villas where blossom and aristocratic maidens once bloomed. Unlike Chekhov, Gorky had a communist agenda to promote. Hence, the summer residents, played by Jennifer Ehle (above, with Michael Bryant) and Patricia Hodge, find themselves delivering righteous orations. Yet this hardly matters, given their fine acting and that of a top-rate cast which includes Roger Allam and Henry Goodman. Gorky's view that a self-indulgent bourgeoisie is betraying its proletarian roots is severe, but the cast manage to humanise the restless, sometimes hilariously quirky characters they play.
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