A new version of Gorky’s, banned under the Czarist regime, charting a household falling apart as the personal and political turmoil of pre-revolutionary Russia gathers pace.

A group of young radicals hang out, drink, dance, moan, philosophise and have sex. Sometime law student Pyotr falls for the loose-living lodger. His sister lusts after Nils, moans about life’s tediousness and messes up her own suicide.

Director Howard Davies’s most recent work at the National includes The Life Of Galileo and Paul, while actress Ruth Wilson is best known for playing the eponymous heroine of the BBC’s Jane Eyre.