Philistines - TNT

Set at the beginning of the 20th century, Maxim Gorky's first play, which premiered in 1902, is revitalised in Andrew Upton's new version. The performances are faultless, all the way from the ageing servant who (symbolically) can no longer lift the samovar unaided to Phil Davis' irate and bigoted paterfamilias. His children — Ruth Wilson's bored teacher and Rory Kinnear as the aimless son whose political activities got him kicked out of uni — are too educated to respect him, and only the lodgers bring the possibility of happiness into the lifeless gloom of the household. Focusing on the disintegration of one petit bourgeois family, Gorky anticipates the political changes in his homeland and, like his contemporary Chekhov, laces his writing with comic touches. But he lacks Chekhov's subtlety and what you get is a five-star production of a flawed three-star play.
Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1, 020-7452 3000. Until August 18