PHILISTINES University Theatre
A pre-revolutionary play that blends sharp-edged drama with black comedy and politics, “Philistines” is centered around a family of ordinary, provincial and small bourgeois Russians. The Bessemenov family is headed by a reactionary and miserly father and a cruel and vindictive mother. This couple subjects their three adult children – a daughter, a son and an adopted son – to their tyrannical nature. Also subjected are the lodgers – a group sharing the residence – who constantly provoke the family with their sharp criticism and joie de vivre. The drama is rooted in the irreconcilable differences between fathers and sons, who long to break free from the suffocating rigidity of their elders. Gorky crafts a sharp and ironic commentary on a wide range of issues through his mirror of Russian society, from class differences to provocative issues of sex, economics, politics, love and marriage. Directed by P.R. Berton and presented by the students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, tickets for this University Theatre production are now on sale.
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