Image: Photo: Summerfolk (2026). Photography by Hollie Fernando. Art direction and Design by National Theatre Graphic Design Studio
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In Maxim Gorky’s Summerfolk, a privileged and wealthy cohort – lawyer, doctor, engineer and their families gather in an idyllic country retreat in the summer of 1905 to relax, party and gossip. But all around them, Russia is beginning to revolt.
Money may not have bought this newly minted generation happiness, but maintaining the political status quo suits them. So, as the working classes rise up in protest outside their secluded Dacha, they continue to party like it’s 1899. The parallels with modern times are inescapable.
“On the outskirts of this play there is so much anger at the disparity of wealth,” says actor Paul Ready when he meets Big Issue at the National Theatre during a break from rehearsals. “At that time, populism was rising,” he continues.
“One thing I read while doing research was that Bolshevism, in its core, could probably only lead to violence and authoritarianism. We live in a time where politics is very polarised.
“The same thing was definitely happening there. Trotsky and Lenin were great at the soundbite, which we get now with the mechanism of Reform. It’s disappointing where politics is going – certain parties are good at igniting anger in people, but without any real responsibility about where that anger goes. It’s irresponsible, but it is a way to get power. So who knows where the end of that is, you know? We don’t particularly learn from history.”
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Ready is best known for his role as Motherland’s sensitive soul Kevin Brady – in a show that casts its own satirical eye on issues around social class. But he has been a mainstay of the stage since leaving drama school, with his role as overbearing, misogynistic lawyer Bassov, a return to the National Theatre after a decade treading the boards elsewhere.
Paul Ready has gone from TV’s Motherland back to the theatre for Summerfolk. Image: Sarah Noons
“It’s great to be back,” he says. “Bassov is somebody that grew up poor. This is people who have got themselves into the middle class because of changes in land law and the Emancipation Act. They’re newly moneyed. Suddenly, the world has opened up to them.
“And as Bassov is chasing more and more money, he’s starting to lose contact with his morals. The other thing about him is he likes to be a provider. He likes to be daddy. But if anybody challenges daddy, he’s got a paper-thin ego. There are examples of people like that in our world right now… I couldn’t think of anybody called Trump that would be like that!”
At the crux of Summerfolk, Ready says, is a big question. “What do we do with privilege? That’s one of those seeds we plant in this play. Am I doing enough with privilege? The world around us is so divided, am I feeding into that division? Do I care?
“Climate change comes up for me a lot. What are we ignoring? We’re OK for now, but there is a storm coming, literally. That’s all in the play – there’s a rumble of uneasiness that speaks very much to now. Because it’s quite scary to look at the world now.”
Ready’s range stretches from his eye-popping turn as a hitman in Dennis Kelly’s Utopia to stage in roles ranging from Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to Macbeth at the Globe. But he admits television success had him worried about his future.
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“When we started filming Motherland, I felt like the performance was quite big,” he recalls. “And it is quite big, because he is a clown. But a beautiful clown. I was going, oh my god, I’m never going to work as anything else again. I wondered whether people would be able to see me doing serious drama.
“So after playing Kevin, I’m always looking for something that challenges those ideas. And when I first read Summerfolk, I had so many questions. I do wonder what the audience will get from this group of people, on holiday, ignoring the world around them.”
Does he see any irony in telling this story of class divides and those in positions of privilege partying, while working-class people struggle, to a National Theatre audience that is skewed towards the well off?
“It’s an ongoing challenge, isn’t it?” he says. “How do you make theatre not elite? How do you make the price of tickets not something that puts people off? But the National does a lot of work to keep ticket prices down. And the Globe, where I’ve spent a lot of time, still maintain the £5 tickets, which is astonishing.
“And it’s so important. Because the arts are essential for finding the grey in a black-and-white world.”
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Summerfolk opens at the National Theatre on 18 March
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