MIKE BARTLETT’S adaptation of Vassa displays little of the febrile state of Russia when the original was conceived and it takes director Tinuke Craig’s witty use of surtitles, kickstarting the action, to tell us that it’s set before a revolution and that “capitalism is showing its age.”
 
Russia was, of course, between revolutions, and Gorky took this liminal, chaotic time to present us with that emblem of confusion, the dysfunctional family.
 
Vassa, in an expansive and mesmerising performance from Siobhan Redmond, is part spiderwoman at the centre of a bitter and twisted web. Her sons are hapless and hopeless, the brother-in-law a predatory alcoholic, while her husband is dying intestate and therefore of no use to her.
 
She is not quite Arachne, though. She’s more of a virago, rampaging and battling to keep the family business afloat. Every act of bullying, mockery and cruelty is dismissed and Vassa is very adept at self-forgiveness.
 
A fair number of broken women populate the piece — Lipa the maid (a sweetly vulnerable Alexandra Dowling), the trapped Lyudmila (Sophie Wu) and the humiliated Natalya (Kayla Meikle). And there are dark secrets and, worse, dark ambitions bubbling below the surface.
 
The farcical elements are well played, though perhaps these set pieces are a little dislocated from the narrative. Michael Gould, as the drink-addled Prokhor, is superb in his splenetic ramblings. He pays the price, as do all the men, when their machinations fail. Vassa is so much better at it than they are and her scheming is pretty Byzantine compared to their clumsy efforts.
 
There are shades of allusion to the horrors outside the family’s door, with Vassa describing the old house as full of rats, pigeons and cats, sometimes all eating one another. There is a strong sense that things are falling apart and the only way this centre will hold is if the matriarch Vassa summons her strong women.
 
Daughter Anna, in a beautifully layered performance by Amber James, seems the right stuff. Her mother claims: “You are the most like me,” a comparison as full of foreboding as praise.
 
Bartlett’s script is somewhat muddled and that’s what lets the production down. It’s all very well to realise that a tautly delivered “Fuck right off” can be effective. But that loses its power when every other fucking character does it.
 
Runs until November 23, box office: https://almeida.co.uk/https://almeida.co.uk/