In her illuminating programme note accompanying the recent production of Summerfolk at the National Theatre, the cultural historian, Rosamund Bartlett, describes Maxim Gorky’s third play as a ‘grotesque next chapter’ to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (2003). Summerfolk was first staged in Moscow in November 1904, some four months after Chekhov’s death. Chekhov had been corresponding […]
Category: review
‘Keep my words forever’ a film about Osip Mandelstam
In May members of the GB-Russia Society enjoyed the opportunity to watch the extraordinary film by filmmaker, music producer and director, Roma Liberov: Сохрани мою речь навсегда. The film, the title of which can be translated as ‘Keep my words forever,’ was created in memory of the life and work of the Russian poet Osip […]
Book Review: A Ransomed Dissident by Igor Golomstock
When I studied 20th century Russian literature some years ago the name of the Russian art historian Igor Golomstock (1929 -2017 ) came up from time to time, but I confess my recollection of him was rather hazy. So I was pleased when his autobiographical work, A Ransomed Dissident, translated by Sara Jolly and Boris […]