Enemies

by Maxim Gorky

1905. Russia is at a turning point. Zakhar Bardin is from the landowning class, but is now the uneasy owner of a factory. His managing director is determined to face down militant workers on a point of principle. But the shutting of the business has tragic consequences for everyone concerned.

Gorky's extraordinary play, which was written in exile and banned in his home country, presents a panoramic view of a restless society, with a bourgeoisie no longer sure of its own values, and a working class steadily facing up to the terrifying sacrifices ahead. Described by Ronald Bryden in the Observer in 1971 as 'a real discovery... the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian revolution', Enemies has a dramatic breadth, humour and ambition unique to Gorky.

Maxim Gorky's Enemies is adapted by David Hare and premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in May 2006.

Genres: Russia, Russian Literature, Theatre, Drama, Plays

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Russian writer Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (Russian: Алексей Максимович Пешков) supported the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and helped to develop socialist realism as the officially accepted literary aesthetic; his works include The Life of Klim Samgin (1927-1936), an unfinished cycle of novels.

This Soviet author founded the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. People also nominated him five times for the Nobel Prize in literature. From 1906 to 1913 and from 1921 to 1929, he lived abroad, mostly in Capri, Italy; after his return to the Soviet Union, he accepted the cultural policies of the time.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The class war. The center cannot hold. The old world decays. Art seems superfluous.

[Rise]

Isang klasikong dula ni Gorky, tanyag na manunulat na Ruso. Kuwento ng isang pamilyang burgesya/elit na nagmamay-ari ng isang pagawaan. Dahil sa pagpasok ng ideolohiyang sosyalismo ang mga manggagawa ay natutong magreklamo at ipaglaban ang kanilang mga karapatan sa pamamagitan ng paghingi ng ilang demand sa pamunuan ng kumpanya. Pinapakita ang masalimuot na tunggalian ng proletaryado at naghaharing-uri. Ang simpatya ni Gorky ay nasa mga manggagawa at talagang dramatiko ang presentasyon nya ng mga eksena. Tunay na pupukaw sa umaapoy na damdaming radikal.

[Yasmin Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant! I wish I could've seen it on the stage.

[Rishvanth Reddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all terms, a revolutionary play of his time. Intense and cinematic. But may not be of greater interest for the contemporary readers who have, indirectly or directly, in some form, would have engaged with the ideas and situations in this work.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my least favourite Gorky play I've read. It doesn't capture the same angst as the Zykovs, and lacks to perfect expression of human flaws in the Lower Depths. It's worth a read for some scope of Gorky's work, but if you haven't read any of his plays - Lower Depths is the way to go.

[Stavros Mekesis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ἕνα θεατρικὸ ἔργο τοῦ Γκόρκη ποὺ μᾶς ταξιδεύει στὴν προεπαναστατικὴ Ῥωσία τοῦ 1905 καὶ στὰ πάθη τῶν Ἐχθρῶν, δηλ. τῶν βιομηχάνων καὶ τῶν ἐργατῶν, μέσα ἀπὸ τοὺς σοσιαλρεαλιστικῆς ὑφῆς διαλόγους τῶν προσώπων.