Review: Summer Folk

(photo credit: Joseph Hammond)

The art of life and hatred
by Jasmine Chen
@CHENPINGTING

Summerfolk by Maxim Gorky, featuring the graduating class of the Ryerson Theatre School, opened this Friday at Ryerson's Mainstage Theatre. Grad shows tend to be massive productions; plays with enough roles for everyone in the class and the opportunity for production students to work on a large scale show, showcasing four years of training in action. Written in 1904, Summerfolk is about a madcap collection of Russian middle class men and women who spend the summer together at a summer home  where they bicker, fall in love, out of love, have affairs, philosophize, get drunk and grow to hate each other. 

There are also many great pairings within the play that make for some sizzling dynamics.

Running just over three hours, Summerfolk keeps the large ensemble busy with rapid fire dialogue and large stylized physicality. But within all of that commotion, the audience struggles to keep up – especially in the first act where there are so many character introductions that trying to figure out how everyone is related is enough to make your head spin. While there is no doubt that these students show great technical skill in handling Gorky's dense language, their excitement often runs away with them. This results in many of the scenes quickly escalating into full scale yelling matches. The most striking scenes of the play end up being those which contain moments of stillness. There is a lot of lovely character work, particularly Rebecca Liddiard as an impassioned poetess and Joshua Stodart as the doctor. Howard Davis as the old Uncle is a treat to watch, his performance is playful and buoyant. There are also many great pairings within the play that make for some sizzling dynamics. This talented ensemble drives the momentum of the piece at a breakneck speed -  the majority of the play feeling like a relay race - but after two and a half hours, the audience is simply exhausted. The last half hour is the pay off; when the action finally comes to a boil and bubbles over. The garden party, where most of the cast is onstage, has an electric energy and you can see the strength of this class as an ensemble. 

On the design end, Summerfolk is a treat. Kevin Fraser's gorgeous lighting evokes the quiet warmth of summer nights, complementing Joanna Yu's detailed costume design. 

Summerfolk feels like a Chekhov play with far less nuance and too many scenes. With the good work being done, one hopes that the next grad production will feature a script that can better showcase such a talented graduating class.

Summerfolk runs to November 2