Plays 2: The Last Ones / Vassa Zheleznova / The Zykovs / Egor Bulychev

“His plays survive through their sheer emotional intensity.”—Guardian

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was hailed by Anton Chekhov as the voice of his time. Chekhov described Gorky as “the first in Russia to have expressed contempt and loathing for the bourgeoisie, and he has done it at the precise moment when Russia is ready for protest.” These four plays offer a panoramic view of Russian life during the revolutionary years and are here given accurate playable translations by Cathy Porter.

The Last Ones: “A single main conflict, that between two brothers predominates. If Enemies marks the end of Gorky’s first period of play writing, then The Last Ones opens the second.”—Barry Scherr

Vassa Zheleznova: “It is a startling play, clearly the work of the author of The Lower Depths, and the central responsibility it gives to women is fascinating.”—Financial Times

The Zykovs: “Gorky is writing about a bourgeois society in a state of perilous drift. But what gives his play its guts and spirit is his feeling that all these characters have human potential that is being fruitlessly squandered.”—Guardian

Egor Bulychev: “The study of a man at grips with the whole problem of existence … it is the real stuff of tragedy.”—The Times