The audience at Gorky's "The Zykovs" was confused. They did not know whether they were watching Russian
drama, comedy or melodrama, and the actors, too, betrayed uncertainty when the audience laughed in unexpected places.
Alexey Gorky was a contemporary of Chekhov, who once said of him: "Gorky is a destroyer who must destroy all that deserves destruction. In this lies his whole strength and it is for this that life has called him."
I believe David Jones was not aware of either Chekhov's or Stanislavsky's advice: or if he was, he chose to ignore it. The result, confusion, despite the efforts or Sheila Allen and Paul Rogers, as sister and brother Zykov.
