For Schools: "Summerfolk" by Maxim Gorky

‘What does it take for people not to be boring’, asks Maxim Gorky in Summerfolk written in 1904. A work with numerous characters that has rarely been performed in Greece, Summerfolk will be presented at our Youth Stage. Maria Maganari’s production transports the work from pre-revolutionary Russia to contemporary Greek summertime.

Often we see holidays as a way to ‘escape’. But can we ever escape ourselves? Gorky’s holiday makers waste their time in chatting, being grumpy, arguing, getting drunk, and having unrequited loves in an atmosphere of idleness. Not all of them, thankfully. Some of them, the younger ones, bring to mind Gorky’s conviction that ‘Man is the only wonder on Earth’.