Philistines

Published Thursday 31 May 2007 at 15:50 by Gerald Berkowitz

Generally speaking, Gorky’s characters are as unhappy as Chekhov’s but more self-conscious about it and more likely to go on at length, exploring and secretly luxuriating in their angst. As a result, they are sometimes pathetic, sometimes ridiculous, but rarely as tragic as the greater writer’s creations are.

In this case, the adult children of a successful businessman bemoan their lack of direction or purpose, hardly noticing that those around them, who they assume to be in the same boat, are quietly managing to have lives, falling in love or getting involved in social causes or just enjoying themselves.

Andrew Upton’s very free adaptation and Howard Davies’ direction have the odd effect of making the central characters the least interesting and sympathetic, Ruth Wilson’s descent into self-destructive madness as the daughter played as just a mild extension of her usual affected world-weariness, while Rory Kinnear unable to find much more in the son than a self-pitying wimp. Conversely, Phil Davis invests their bourgeois father, nominally the villain of the piece, with a sincerity and energy that make his frustration with the younger generation easy to identify with.

Mark Bonnar brings quiet strength to a young man who is getting on with his life, but Justine Mitchell’s role as the life-embracing woman whose love will save the son from his stasis has been somewhat reduced, making her a bit of a deus ex machina, and Conleth Hill as a wittily philosophising drunk is relegated to the background.