Revolution is coming to tea time, and the bourgeoisie brought biscuits.
In a sun-dappled garden in provincial Russia in 1905, some factory owners and their wives discuss the unrest among the workers. Rather than submit to a strike, they decide to close down the factory. When an owner is slain in a scuffle with a workman, the ensuing investigation uncovers the socialist fervor that is sweeping the countryside.
Acting
Frances Sternhagen's razor-sharp Paulina—cruelty in pearls.
Writing
Maxim Gorky's dialogue: every polite sentence drips with contempt.
Director
Kirk Browning
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gorky wrote this in 1906 while hiding from the Tsarist police—it's essentially autobiographical rage in play form.
This 1974 PBS Theatre in America production was so rarely rebroadcast that bootlegs circulated among drama students for decades.
US
