CANCELED

*** Given the unfolding situation with Covid-19 in Australia we have made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel Summerfolk and we will no longer be able to stage it as part of the 2020 season.

Summerfolk (How Good is Australia?) (Nov 21-Dec 20)
By Maxim Gorky, adapted by Eamon Flack
Directed by Eamon Flack

When Belvoir does a classic, it’s got to be one that speaks pretty clearly to the here and now. And Flack is so confident his take on Maxim Gorky’s 1904 play will speak to the here and now, he’s given it a pretty topical subtitle: “How Good is Australia?”

“This play wasn’t on the table until after the last election, and then it came onto the table very, very quickly,” Flack says. “I think a lot of people are really confused about the dissonance between what we claim to believe as a country and what we choose to put our stock in, and that’s literally what Gorky is writing about.”

The play features a group of people (comfortable Aussies taking a seaside retreat in Flack’s version) who have become so addicted to the comfort of their lifestyle that they fail to recognise that their world is fundamentally changing. Flack previously directed a small-scale production of the play a decade ago – as his directorial debut – but will helm a cast of 13 this time around, including Mandela Mathia, Richard Pyros, Pamela Rabe, Toby Truslove and Sophie Wilde.