Sunday, October 22, 2006

Dostoyevsky on stage ...

... Debbie and I went to see the Arden Theatre Company's production of Crime and Punishment Saturday night. Compressing Dostoyevsky's great - and long - novel into a mere 80 minutes might seem improbable, but the adaptation by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus turned out to be excellent, as did the production. Cory Nickell was pretty much what Raskolnikov ought to be - someone basically decent whose grandiose thoughts get the better of him; Christopher Donahue was excellent as (principally) Porfiry, the inspector; and Julianna Zinkel was just right as (principally) Sonia. Donahue and Zinkel had to pay other roles as well. Zinkel, who is quite lovely, pulled off being the old pawnbroker by covering her head in a shawl, and also managed to play the pawnbroker's sister Lizaveta. The lady can act.
I was worried before the play started when I read in director Aaron Posner's notes that "nearly every hard headline I read each morning reminds me of some part of this play." I thought to myself, "Oh no, we're going to be shown how 'relevant' Dostoyevsky is." Happily, Posner didn't let his headline reading get in the way of his direction. This is Dostoyevsky, not Relevance 101.
Why do people in the arts think something has to be relevant to, of all things, the day's headlines? Dostoyevksy isn't relevant. He's perennial. As the play itself notes, human nature hasn't changed, doesn't change, isn't about to change.
Advice to artists: Turn off the news. Cancel your subscription to the newspaper. Relish human character for its own sake in all its myriad variety.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:56 AM

    Sounds like a great production. And I urge you to see another in Phila. -- son Mark and I were also at the theatre on Sat. and saw a wonderful production of "The Pillowman" at the Wilma. I am continually amazed at how inventive they are with their set designs there -- it's not a huge space, but they use it brilliantly.

    And the play itself is amazing: Really about the archetypal power of stories (or maybe the power of *archetypal* stories-- fairy tales!). Hope the main actor, Saxon Palmer, wins an award for his role. He has the kind of suppressed energy of Billy Crudup or Christian Bale. Indeed, he kinda looks like those guys.

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