Summerfolk

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Summerfolk ({{langx|ru|Дачники|translit=Dachniki}}) is a play by Maxim Gorky written in 1904{{cite web|url=http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc73.html|title=Maxim Gorky|publisher=Moonstruck Drama Bookstore|accessdate=2007-01-31}} and first published in 1905 by Znaniye (1904 Znaniye Anthology, book Three), in Saint Petersburg.[http://az.lib.ru/g/gorxkij_m/text_1904_dachniki.shtml Commentaries to Дачники]. The Complete M. Gorky in 30 volumes, vol 6. // Собрание сочинений в тридцати томах: Государственное издательство художественной литературы; Москва; 1949 Том 6. Пьесы 1901-1906

Full of characters who "...might have stepped out of a Chekhovian world",{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/06/1068013311312.html?from=storyrhs|title=Summerfolk Review|last=Thomson|first=Helen|date=November 7, 2003|publisher=The Age Company Ltd|accessdate=2007-01-31 | location=Melbourne}} it takes place in 1904—the same year that Anton Chekhov died. The play dramatises the Russian bourgeois social class and the changes occurring around them.{{cite web|url=http://www.langara.bc.ca/studio58/newsletters/guysanddolls.pdf|title=Guys & Dolls Media Release & Upcoming Shows|publisher=Studio 58|date=January–February 2007|accessdate=2007-01-31 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927201814/http://www.langara.bc.ca/studio58/newsletters/guysanddolls.pdf |archivedate = September 27, 2007}} In Russia the play premiered on 10 November 1904 at the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre in Saint Petersburg.

The British premiere of the play was given by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London on 27 August 1974. It was directed by David Jones, who introduced several of Gorky's plays to Britain.Gorky: Five Plays, Methuen 1994 {{ISBN|978-0-413-18110-7}}

Nick Dear adapted the play for a production on London's Olivier stage, part of the Royal National Theatre, in 1999.{{cite news|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990907/ai_n14240462|title=The Information: 'Summerfolk'|publisher=Newspaper Publishing PLC|date=Sep 7, 1999|accessdate=2007-01-31}} {{Dead link|date=August 2010|bot=RjwilmsiBot}}