SECOND HOMES WITH ENDLESS ANGST AND RUSSIAN CACKLING

SUMMERFOLK ★★★ NATIONAL THEATRE, UNTIL APRIL 29 nationaltheatre.org.uk

- With STEFAN KYRIAZIS

IMPERFECT PAIR Ready and Rundle

Set in Imperial Russia, this is prestige theatre on the grandest scale, from Peter McKintosh's soaring set (a hollow timber frame home spectacularly transforming into a woodland clearing surrounded by a stream) to the sprawling, lavishly costumed, superb cast.

Last staged in the UK in 1999, it clocked in at almost four hours. That's a lot of Slavic angst. This new adaptation by siblings Nina and Moses Raine is an hour shorter, but still feels too long.