The Play

The Lower Depths is Maxim Gorky’s best known play, widely considered both a masterpiece and an extremely problematic work. Subtitled Scenes from Russian Life, the play was a huge success from its first performance. The idea for the play was conceived in 1900, and it was written during the winter of 1901 and the spring of 1902.

It was produced by the Moscow Arts on December 18, 1902. Konstantin Stanislavski directed the play and starred in it as Satin, and as it was one of his earliest successes, it became a hallmark of his work, the Moscow , and Russian socialist realism. The play was performed worldwide and established Gorky both at home and in the West. It has been regularly staged, in productions across the globe, ever since.

Truth, lies and story-telling in The Lower Depths

Critical writing on The Lower Depths, has concentrated on the issue of a "harsh truth" versus a "consoling lie" as the heart of Gorky's play. Such an exclusively thematic view of this text, however, neglects the fact that it was written for performance. If theme is integrated with theatrical form in the construction of meaning, different interpretations may emerge.

A focal area of interest lies in the story-telling episodes. They provide several moments where the dramatic form becomes consciously engaged with the truth and lies theme of the play. They also create a set of links which informs interpretation of the perplexing ending to the play. When operating in a theatrical medium: truth, or reality, is pursued through the theatrical illusions which present the fictional world.

Story-telling, particularly oral storytelling, embodies a similar structure of truth and lies, as content is conveyed by the illusions of performance. Story-telling may also refer to efforts to mask truth, but it is nevertheless a venerable tradition of entertainment. The argument here is that the oral story-telling in The Lower Depths, when located in a theatrical, performance, framework, may hold a key to a new understanding of this text.

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The generally held view regards Gorky as a writer dedicated to one political agenda, which he realises by showing signs of the disintegration of established society of his day. The key to a new understanding is that oral story-telling in the Lower Depths not only exemplifies, but also greatly expands the truth and lies debate. Truths and lies are not in conflict, but working Photograph from Original Production together to produce a unified whole. Gorky is less of a propagandist and more of a humanist than has generally been allowed.

The memorable setting for this play is a place of extremes. On the one hand, it is a refuge for the destitute, suffering and dying; on the other, a place for survivors, the perverse and self-preservers. Into this pit of humanity comes Luka. He is wily, shrewd, lives on his wits, a survivor, but he is also kindly. Unable to pass suffering by, he offers his "consoling lies”. His words bring instant calm and hope. Other characters, trapped in a life of poverty, dislike his temporary comforting, calling him a liar. They prefer to justify their aimless existences by the hopelessness, both theological and social, of their situation.

The climax of the play in Act 4 emerges from a previously reticent but powerful character, Satin. To stop complaints at Luka’s disappearance Satin launches into a defence of his actions. Luka was right to console others, he drunkenly proclaims. Every human being is sacred and should be cherished and comforted. No one individual has access to the truth. Then Satin develops Lukas ideas for his own purpose. The truth resides, he argues, in the recognition that all people are members of the human race whatever their status, beliefs or ethnic origins.

These words appear to cap the debate which has simmered throughout the play. On the one hand, the realist and pessimist (Satin) who accepts and deals with whatever life offers, and on the other, the consoler and optimist (Luka) who gives comfort by offering hope that life will improve. In fact, the two sides of the 3 argument are not quite as clear-cut as may appear. Gorky operates a shift in views in the course of the play. Satin, embraces the idealist view of unifying the human race, while Luka, bends beliefs to suit his own purpose betraying an underlying pessimism: things (including God and stories) are true if you believe in them, not if you don't. Each of these two leading characters resists easy classification.

This central issue of truth and lies is illuminated by the form Gorky chose for his material. It is necessary to shift the focus, move it away from the polarisation between philosophy and ideology, away from a choice between Satin and Luka. Gorky, the consummate dramatist, is able to fuse the complexity of his world view with the plurality which arises from drama in performance.

Theatricality is a rich seam explored by Gorky in this "naturalistic" play. There are many examples which could be analysed, his use of quotation or of melodrama, for example; similar sustained usage of self-referential performance devices in the opening scene to the play.

Story-telling is an aspect central to The Lower Depths. It not only exemplifies the truth and lies theme, but also operates at the heart of the theatrical experience. Stories contain a juxtaposition of truth and lies: the real world of the listeners is usually related in some way to the fictional world created. Like theatre, oral story-telling is a performance, and when used in drama creates performances-within- performances. In The Lower Depths the stories vary from escapist fiction to parables. Not only do all the characters have a story to tell about how they have come to be in destitution, but stories are also inserted into the action.

The question is what do the stories (Luka’s, Nastya’s), and their more fragmentary biographical counterparts (Bubnov’s, Kvashnia’s, Actor’s, etc), contribute in performance terms and how, as a result, do they integrate with the debate on truth and lies? Story-telling offers the characters escape. It transports them beyond the time parameters of the action and beyond the spatial confines of the doss-house walls. But more than that stories also offer escape to the audience and greatly enlarge the temporal and scenic action by consciously appealing to the imagination. A gap opens up between the squalid, prison-like conditions on the stage and the fictional worlds created by the stories. 4

This is a set which entraps its inhabitants. Theoretically they are free to leave which they do on a daily basis. They all unfailingly return, however: they have nowhere else to go. In this sense the fictional world of the play and the stage set are one: there is no escape. Equally, the audience is as entrapped as the characters. However, both characters and audience in listening to the stories are transported simultaneously to new fictional worlds. As a result, the audience is made as aware as the characters of the confined space of the depths.

Just like the stories, Satin's trio of climactic speeches in Act stand out for their monologic quality. Just like the previous story-tellers he is surrounded by a silenced on-stage audience, he transports his on-stage and auditorium audiences together to a fictional and temporal world beyond the stage. The climax to Satin's "story" is his assertion of the collective spirit and strength of mankind. His inclusion of the good and the evil (Napoleon), the recognisable and the different (Luka, Mahomet) might also be seen as a hint of the need for plurality.

Frequently claimed as the ideological climax to the play, this speech, is in fact a prelude to a much stronger dramatic climax. The fact that a climax may yet come is signalled in Satin's agitation after his rhetoric. The Baron fills the stasis with his now truthful version of his life story and his exit; the Actor appeals to the Tartar to pray for him and Gorky inserts two further pauses into this brief exchange, allowing focus to shift back to Satin's growing agitation.

This time, however, it does not stimulate further debate about truth and lies, but creates moments of harsh truth, which mount in their devastation from the Baron's recognition of truth about himself to the cruel reality of the Actor's suicide. This moment is fraught with irony. There is irony in that this suicide is prefigured in Luka’s story of the man who sought the promised land; and there is the irony that the play is itself in the end only a fiction.

In terms of the story-telling mode, this time the on-stage and auditorium audiences are powerless to intervene. The debate is over and the play is 5

Photograph from Original Production drawing to a close. At this moment, arguably, the usual gap between theatricality and verisimilitude is narrowed almost to closure: the shock of the suicide is the same whether it is fiction or truth. In conclusion, therefore, story-telling is used by Gorky in ways seminal to both his thematic and dramatic purposes. The stories are used to enlarge the theme and to indicate the "story" nature of Satin's solution.

His claims on behalf of humanity are not a resolution but a further component in the patterns that life offers. His exaltation of man makes the presence of suffering, of crime, of exploitation, the more painful.

The ideological interpreter of The Lower Depths will see Satin's set of speeches as an attack upon the capitalist system of the period; the philosophical interpreter will see this as a call for the assertion of humanitarian values towards the deprived.

However, by also playing on the illusions and realities of the theatrical experience, the presence of story-telling, which underpins Satin's performance, indicates that the important aspect is the counter-pointing of these two opposed views. Neither view is, nor can be, absolute. Satin can call for the truth, for humanitarian values, but the Actor commits suicide to complete the counterpoint, the story and the play. As a result of this examination of the integration of form and content in Gorky's play, it may be argued perhaps controversially, given the usual interpretations of his drama as politically monolithic, that it is plurality, the competing claims to truth rather than solutions, which is central to The Lower Depths, and which is life's richest attribute. Cynthia Marsh, Dec 2000 (abridged) Cast Russell Barnett – Satin

Trained: East 15 Acting School Theatre: White Riot – Root Theatre Company, Yesterday’s News – Hen & Chickens Out of Order Theatre Company, Spider’s Web - White Bear Ashanti Theatrics, Goal Posts for Jumpers – Rosemary Branch. Echoes from the Deep Song – BAC. Film: Coming Home – Light Films Ltd, The Hand-Grave Tales – FGS Productions, Derelict – Reel Films, Tough Love – Seven Films, Potential – Light Films Ltd, A Morass – Paradyll Productions, A Rather Grimm Tale – Severed Swan Productions, Home Sweet Home – Paper Mannequin Productions, Whatever Happened to Pete Blaggit – Sepia Films, Our Day Will Come – Film School. Other: Russell is involved with the London Shakespeare Workout company who conduct workshops in HM Prisons, he is also an accomplished voice over artist. 6

Julian Bird - Kostyliov

Trained: Central School of Speech and Drama Theatre: Meslier (Edinburgh Festival), Dazed and Abused (Edinburgh Festival, London and New York), The Last Priest (King’s Head), Three Sisters (Lion and Unicorn), Peer Gynt (The Ibsen Theatre Company at The Plaisance), Look Back in Anger ( Playhouse), As You Like It (Hare and Chickens), Thebans (Wimbledon Studio), Love Horse (), Healing in Time (Edinburgh Festival), Grand Slam (The Bedford Theatre) TV and film: The Tudors (BBC) (The Bishop of London), The Red Restaurant (Dir: Jo Shaw), Cold Burden (Dir: Pouya Tavasoli), Dora (28films Ltd) Other: Julian’s background includes many years as a physician and psychiatrist www.julianbird.com

Emma Carter - Vassilisa

Trained: Arts Educational School, London. Theatre: Romeo & Juliet, Young Shakespeare Company (UK Tour), Timon of Athens, Cogs Theatre (Barons Court), Much ado about Nothing Groundlings Theatre (Open Air Tour), The Importance of Being Earnest, One Off Productions (New Theatre Royal Portsmouth). Other: Emma is also a voice over artist and corporate role player. www.emmacarter-actor.com

Jemma Churchill - Kvashnia

Trained: Guildhall School of Music and Drama Theatre: Noises Off (Wolsey, Ipswich) The Seagull (Exeter), Factors Unforeseen (Orange Tree, Richmond), Loves A Luxury & Caught In The Net(Southwold/Aldeburgh), The Winslow Boy, A Night In Provence, Things We Do For Love & Having A Ball(National Tour) , A Happy Medium ( National Tour) Hamlet , When Did You Last See Your...Trousers? (, London), Macbeth(London Bubble Africa Tour) Slaughterhouse Five ( Everyman, Liverpool) Television: Waterloo Road,, Heartbeat, Hollyoaks , Holby City, Poirot, Midsomer Murders, Doctors, The Bill, Jonathan Creek, Eastenders, Waiting For God, Kiss Me Kate,Brittas Empire & Red Dwarf And Most Recently As Angela Pike In Doctors Film: Her First Job Was In Mai Zetterling's Feature Film Scrubbers, F**K,C**T,Love (Short By Elizabeth Heery) Desert Flower ( German Feature) Arms Of An Angel Radio: Various Radio Plays For Bbc Radio 4 Including The Good Companions, Potting On, Vanity Fair,The Idiot, Brideshead Revisited And Brief Lives.

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Other: For Brunel’s Bicentenary she toured along the GWR route with her one woman show The Engineers Corset by Janet Goddard about Engineering , Victorian Women and their corsets!

Nick Downes – The Baron

Theatre: Richard III/Much Ado About Nothing/Uncle Vanya/Hamlet – Shakespeare Actors; Timon – Cogs Theatre Company; King Lear – New Theatre Royal; Waiting For Godot – National Tour (Full Belt Theatre Co).; Measure For Measure/Twelfth Night/Comedy of Errors – Titchfield Festival Theatre; The Dumb Waiter – RopesEnd Theatre Co., King Arthur – Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company Film: Make Mine Milk/Lenny’s Luck – AD-Productions; Is It Too Late? (student film); The People You Meet In Heaven (Bolt Action Media) Other: Nick is a graduate of Oxford University. He has directed extensively for the theatre. He has also recently completed, with Clive Holland, the co- writing of The Con-Man, recently previewed at the New Diorama Theatre, London and touring nationally in 2011. He is a workshop leader and teacher of drama, theatre and acting Phillipa Flynn - Nastya

Trained: Birmingham School of Speech and Drama Theatre: The Witch of Edmonton – Periwig and Monkey Theatre, Timon of Athens – Cogs Theatre, Macbeth – National Theatre of Luxemburg, Othello – National Tour Melting Pot Theatre Company, Importance of Being Earnest – National Tour Troika Productions, Playhouse Creatures - Just Us theatre, Shakespeare for Breakfast – C- Theatre Edinburgh, Treasure Island – Gaiety Theatre Isle of Man, Katrina the Littlest Christmas Tree/ Burglar Bill – National Tour Pandora’s Box, Much Ado About Nothing/ Twelfth Night/Romeo and Juliet – Black Cat Theatre company Film: Shakespeare’s World ( Macbeth at the Globe) – Internar Productions, Nobody everyday – Lighthouse Media Other: Phillipa has worked regularly Holland for the Netherlands Shakespeare in Performance project and as a work shop leader for Chicken Shed theatre’s Shed at the Park. She has recently recorded ‘game of Loo’ for the Warpole Project and can be seen splashing about in the latest Flip Camera advert! Jez Jameson – The Actor

Trained: Cambridge University Theatre: The Passion (Unity Theatre), Soul Post (Artemus Theatre Company), The Lady's Not Far Behind (HH Productions), The Taming of The Shrew (Cambridge Arts Theatre), Film: La Legend Dali (Phoenix Productions), One Last Hit (Phoenix Productions). Radio: Marie Shelley's Frankenstein (Castledown Media)

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Zoë Land – Anna

Trained: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Theatre: Troilus and Cressida - LOST Theatre, Anthony and Cleopatra - Riverside Productions at the Scoop, Julius Caesar - Riverside Productions at the Scoop, The Way of the World - A single leaf at the , All in the Timing - New Players Theatre, Beaux Stratagem - Mountview, Twelfth Night - Mountview, Winter's Tale - Mountview, Iphigenia at Aulis - Mountview, Brum - No. 1 tour, Relatively Speaking - White Horse in Germany, Hunchback of Notre Dame - Alpha Theatrical in Australia, Cinderella/Alice in Wonderland/The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - M&M Theatrical Productions Film: Zoe has appeared in various short films, over the last year, which have all been well received.

Sandy Myles - Luka

Trained: Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Theatre: Racing Demon - Empty Space Theatre Company, Gawain and the Green Knight Theatre Workshop, Edinburgh, Funny Peculiar / The Long and the Short and the Tall - Plymouth Theatre Company, As You Like It - Dundee Rep, A Taste of Honey / War of the Worlds TRYP, A Month in the Country - Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh & tour, Easter AICO, A Man for All Seasons - Eden Court, Inverness & tour, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid - Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, The Provost / Maisie’s Santa Panto Borderline, TheThreepenny Opera - Theatre Royal York, Aladdin / Mother Goose Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, The Wizard of Oz Harrogate, Lloyd George Knew My Father / Witness for the Prosecution / Candida / Dial M For Murder / The Hollow Civic Theatre Ayr TV: Dr Crippen in Was Crippen Innocent? / Sutherland’s Law / Cicero / Garnock Way Other: He has taken part in many short independent films. He sang in Aida at Earls Court and has taken leading tenor roles with small opera companies. He spent two years as a French language racing commentator.

present The Lower Depths 9

By Maxim Gorky

Cast (in speaking order)

Steven Rodgers Bubnov Jemma Churchill Kvashnia Thomas Renshaw Kleshch Phillipa Flynn Nastya Nick Downes The Baron Zoë Land Anna Russell Barnett Satin Jez Jameson The Actor Julian Bird Kostyliov Daniel Simpson Vaska Pepel Sandy Myles Luka Hannah-Jane Pawsey Natasha Emma Carter Vassilisa Rajan Sharma The Muslim

The performance lasts for approximately 150 minutes, including one interval of 20 minutes.

August 31st – September 19th 2010 Barons, Court Theatre, W14

Production Team

Director Matt Beresford Designer Katie Lias Lighting Design Catherine Webb Stage Manager Jade Nagi Photography Simone Sutton

Acknowledgements

Ron Phillips and Chris Deal of , Hannah Lumb and all the team at Shelter and Mike Bartlett and the Kew Scout Group.

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Scenes

Act 1 The Basement Doss-House of Kostyliov and Vassilisa Act 2 The same. Later that day. INTERVAL Act 3 The same. Two days later. Act 4 The same. Three weeks later.

Thoughts on ‘The Lower Depths’

Having already booked a ‘slot’ at Barons Court, I was very keen to direct something that utilised the wonderful atmosphere of this theatre. After reading Gorky’s first set notes “A cave -like cellar. The ceiling is arched, grimy, with the plaster peeling off”. I worked as hard as I could to ensure I wasn’t just choosing the play for its setting!

It’s a complex piece and the first I have directed where I feel we were genuinely still ‘uncovering layers’ as the rehearsals came to an end. I have no doubt the cast will continue to learn and discover as the run progresses.

It was striking, even on first reading, the amount of animal imagery Gorky packs into the first few pages of The Lower Depths. This has driven a lot of our work on the play – from the actor’s characterisation to the set and, especially, work around status and power. These ten individuals, living in such close proximity, must have a pecking order in order to avoid anarchy.

The play presents its problems too of course. An audience looking to follow a narrative will latch on to the love triangle. This ‘story’ ends at the conclusion of Act 3 and therefore, on first reading the Fourth Act seems superfluous and dogmatic. Chekhov had the same issue, so they’re in good company!

As with any good rehearsal process you end up in a different place than you had expected to be; the conflict I had seen between Satin and Luka has become

11 blurred as the process has continued. The impact that Luka has on ALL of the characters has become more and more vital to the journey they go on and that the audience see. Crucially the final death is contrasted strongly with the death at the end of Act 2 – the characters have all learnt a huge amount, even if, for some of them the hope Luka gave them and his subsequent disappearance has been too much to bear.

There are many speeches where the characters ‘escape’ from their reality into fantasy and memory; Gorky uses meta-theatrical techniques throughout, never allowing the audience to forget they are watching a play and he constantly muddies the boundaries between ‘truth/lies’, ‘actor/audience’ and ‘reality/illusion’.

I fear he is often dismissed as “Chekhov, but dogmatic and bleak”! But, I find his drama very different and the elements of non-naturalism have fascinated me throughout. I have no doubts that had he written this play 40 years later it would have been embraced as Brechtian!

If you want to read more of my musings throughout the process, see more rehearsal pictures or find out more about Cogs please visit our website – www.cogstheatre.com. Hannah-Jane Pawsey - Natasha

Trained: ALRA (The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts) Theatre: Be My Baby (The Union Theatre), Aristides - The Outcast Hero (The ), Betrayal (The Black Ram Theatre Company - Touring), Moonfleece (The Icarus Theatre Collective), Perhaps Merely Quiet (The Icarus Theatre Collective), Twisted Magnolias (The ), Macbeth (The Lost Theatre Company) Film: The Sky In Bloom (Hydra Films), The Bridge (D & D Productions), The Tourist (Durango Films), Out Loud (In Human Form), The Sound Of Silence (Tilt Films and Screen East) Television: Waking The Dead (BBC)

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Thomas Renshaw - Kleshch

Trained: Arts Educational Schools London Theatre: Twelfth Night - Lost Theatre Company, Daisy Pulls It Off - Lost Theatre Company, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Black Ram Theatre Company, Macbeth - Leicester Haymarket Film: By Hook - Laura Evers Johns, The Pack - Tower of Light Motion Picture Company

Steven Rodgers - Bubnov

Trained: Central School of Speech and Drama Theatre: Paper Tom - Handheld Arts, Warnings - Fleet, The Fall of Troy - Write By Numbers, When Henri Met Oscar - Red Mick Theatre Company, Julius Caesar - Lazarus Theatre Company, Timon of Athens - Cogs Theatre, The Comedy of Errors - The Curious Room, The Duchess of Malfi - Lazarus Theatre Company, The Nightingale Mystery - Ibsen Stage Company. Other: Steven has performed in various student films, appeared with the International Clown Project and performed readings at the Austrian Cultural Forum. He is currently writing his first full-length play.

Rajan Sharma – The Muslim

Trained: Arts Educational Schools London Theatre: A Dream Play - KinkyFish Theatre Company; Awk-Word - msft; The Bear/The Proposal/The Jubilee - Arts Educational Schools London; Macbeth - Arts Educational Schools London Film: Making it Count - PWC [Corporate]; Out of Juice - Bollo Productions; Some Voices - Arts Educational Schools London

Daniel Simpson - Pepel

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Trained: East 15 & The Actor Works Theatre: SWEENEY TODD - All Star Productions, A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG (European Tour) - In Company Theatre, LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST - Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, THE TITLE OF THE DRAMA ABOUT ANTE IS WRITTEN HERE - Company, TIMON OF ATHENS - Cogs Theatre, HENRY V - Cambridge Shakespeare Festival Film: INDIAN OCEAN - Yellow Productions Ltd, THE SILENCE AT THE SONG’S END - JAR Productions, CHARLIE DIGS DEEP - FleetFoot Films, THREE'S A CROWD - Drew Pautz Radio: The Sea - David Blount Other: Absent () - Dreamthinkspeak, Olympus Cameras Product Launch (with David Bailey) www.danielsimpsononline.com Katie Lias - Design

Training: First Class degree in English and Theatre Studies from Royal Holloway University and Distinction in Set and Costume Design from RADA Theatre: No Expense Spared (); Word: Play 3 (); The Plague (Lost Theatre, Stockwell); The Day They Banned Christmas (Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton); A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (); Penthesilea; Man Equals Man (both RADA). Film: We’re Coming Home (Fundraising trailer produced by the RSC and Dusthouse). Other: Katie recently completed a one year contract to work as a resident design assistant for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Design assistant work for the RSC includes As You Like It; The Drunks; and Arabian Nights. She is currently the Ass. Designer for ‘Flashdance The Musical’ opening in the West End this Autumn. www.katielias.com Catherine Webb – Lighting Design

Trained: Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts Theatre: Youth Music Theatre, Peter Pan (as Assistant Lighting Designer) – Assembly Rooms, The Virtuous Burglar – Camden People’s Theatre, A Season Before the Tragedy of Macbeth. Lighting Design at RADA: Gielgud Studio, A Lie of the Mind – Vanbrugh Theatre, Tree 2010 – GBS Theatre, Midsummer Nights Dream – Gielgud Studio, Pericles. Other: Catherine recently graduated from RADA, and as well as lighting design, earns her living writing novels published under her own name and as Kate Griffin. Jade Nagi- Stage Manager and Lighting Operator

Trained: Rose Bruford College Theatre: 24 Hour Plays – , One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – (Italia Conti Academy), A Vampire Story – , Jack and the Beanstalk – Malvern Theatre, Pages: Promised Land – Union Theatre, Jason and the Argonauts/ Medea/ Petite Rouge/Blood Wedding – The Scoop @ More London, Saturday Night – The Arts Theatre, A Man of No Importance /VF Opera – Sir Jack Lyons Theatre (Royal Academy of Music), Cinderella/Bouncers – Harrogate Theatre, Breathing Zone – , Les Liaisons Dangereuses – , The Man in the Elevator/The Hamlet Machine – Film: Nearly Famous – Kudos Productions Matt Beresford - Director

This is the second outing for Cogs Theatre under Matt’s direction, after their debut production of Timon of Athens last year. Matt has a B.A. (Hons.) in History from The University of Sussex. He began directing several years ago and has recently completed an OU Playwright Course and an intensive Directing Short Course at RADA with Sue Dunderdale. He will be beginning an MA in Theatre Directing at St. Mary’s University College, in September of this year.

Design Notes: ‘The Lower Depths’

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Gorky’s text is rich with animal imagery, highlighting the bestial mentality of many of his characters, as each struggles to survive in a cruel world which has stripped them of feeling and basic human rights.

This sense of dehumanisation was something that we were keen to Photo of Set Model emphasise through the design and so my research began with the investigation of animal homes: dens, cages, burrows.

This was developed to create a space for the characters which was suggestive of the way in which battery hens are kept, which I felt was perfect for the cramped conditions of Kostyliov’s boarding house.

Throughout the rehearsal process, the actors explored what specific animal his or her character might be. This was useful not only in terms of developing their own traits, but I also wanted each of their costumes to support this and so nature was hugely influential in terms of shaping the costume design. Katie Lias

Bubnov and The Actor: Satin and The Muslim: Penguin and Peacock Gorilla and Lemur

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Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky was born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov in Nizhy Novgorod, Russia, on March 16, 1868. His father died when he was five years old, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His childhood was a brutal one; he was abused by his grandfather and forced to earn his own living from the age of eight.

While he was still a child, Gorky became a menial labourer and a tramp, experiences that informed the works for which he is most famous. He was frequently beaten and abused by his employers, and to escape the miserable conditions of his life, he became an avid reader.

In this way Gorky was self-educated, and came to see literature as a means of salvation for all people. By 1892 he had published his first piece under his pseudonym, meaning Maxim the Bitter. Gorky was viewed with suspicion by Russian authorities, who saw his work as contributing to growing social unrest. He was briefly imprisoned in 1901 and the following year his election to the Russian Academy of Sciences was rescinded. Gorky was active in the 1905 revolution, and after its defeat lived in exile, mostly in Capri.

During the early post-revolution years, Gorky complied with Lenin’s demands that he cease speaking out against the new regime. Soon though, Portrait of Gorky by Akseli he returned to Capri, where he wrote his Gallen-Kalle autobiographical trilogy: My Childhood, In the World, and My University. He entered a period of compliance with the new Soviet government, and, as Russia’s foremost living writer, was used to promote Soviet views.

He died on June 14, 1936, under suspicious circumstances amid speculation that he was assassinated. Although Gorky has consistently received mixed criticism, his

16 work marks the innovation of socialist realism and reflects tremendous advocacy on the part of Russia’s oppressed people.

For more information please visit www.cogstheatre.com

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Shelter

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On a Saturday in mid-August I was given a timely reminder of the lives of homeless people, on the streets of Europe’s richest city.

A young man was in tears, begging for 20p from passers-by on the stairs at Leicester Sq tube. Having stopped to give him some money, his hands bandaged like Gorky’s Muslim, his hair matted with dried blood and his face streaked with tears, he told me he was upset about his cousin, Jay, who also lived on the streets and had died 3 weeks before. Busy shoppers and tourists streamed past; we can’t stop and give to everyone of course.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s play – I hope the characters move and entertain you. As excellent as this company is and as much as I love the play, nothing could affect me as much as that young man did that day. When walking down Tottenham Court Road, in tears now myself, I was reminded why I wanted to donate proceeds from this play to Shelter and how disgusted I am that the injustice that Gorky’s characters suffer, still remains with us, despite the vast wealth Britain enjoys. In truth a society as rich as ours should need no charities when people can live in such excess, but Shelter does amazing work and I hope you will give what you can.

Matt Beresford

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