Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky . Adapted by Marilyn Campbell-Rowe and Curt Columbus-.
Directed by Caroline
Stacey. Set and costumes by Kathleen Kershaw.Lighting design by Darren Hawkins.
Sound design Kimmo Vennonen.Performance coach (Josephine Gazard) Shelly Higgs.
Stage management Rhiley Winnett. Street Two. The Street Theatre. June 22-July 7
Bookings www.the street.org.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins.
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| Christopher Samuel Carroll as Rasvolnikov and PJ WIlliams as Inspector Porfiry in Marilyn Campbell-Lowe and Curt Columbus's adaptation of Fyodr Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment |
Through the haze a figure kneels in supplication, back to audience and arms folded behind the neck. “Do you believe in the resurrection of Lazarus” a voice asks from the shadows. “Do you believe in God? “ Kimmo Vennenon’s haunting composition floats through the air with ecclesiastic mysticism, mysteriously emanating through Darren Hawkins atmospheric lighting design. The questions are repeated as Inspector Porfiry (PJ Williams) emerges into the light to interrogate the impoverished student Raskolnikov (Christopher Samuel Carroll). An elderly pawnbroker and her sister have been axed to death in their apartment. Raskolnikov has visited the old lady and is brought in to help with enquiries. Porfiry’s search for the truth frames the conceptual structure of Marilyn Campbell-Lowe and Curt Columbus’s superbly crafted ninety minute adaptation for the stage. Incorporating Porfiry’s questioning with flashbacks to key incidents in Dostoevsky’s novel Lowe and Columbus cleverly emphasise Crime and Punishment’s provocative dialectic: Is an evil act, such as the murder of a person justifiable if it can lead to immense good? Can the death of an ordinary human being as defined by Raskolnikov as a breeder of future human beings be justified by the elevation of an extraordinary human being endowed with gifts beyond the mere ordinary human? It is a proposition espoused in Raskolnikov’s radical article “On Crime” for a university magazine. He believes that the murder of the pawnbroker will lift himself and his friend’s daughter Sonia (Josephine Gazard) out of poverty and in Sonia’s case prostitution to which she has resorted to provide for her family. Only then will they qualify as extraordinary humans capable of good deeds.
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| Josephine Gazard as Sonia. Christopher Samuel Carroll as Rasnolvikov |
In Raskolnikov’s case his crime is not only that he has committed murder but the belief that he is entitled to take life on moral grounds and achieve the status of an extraordinary human being. Raskolnikov’s punishment is psychological torture, guilt, confusion and paranoia. Carroll plumbs the depths of Raskolnikov’s self imposed anguish. Director Stacey maintains the suspense and intrigue as we are drawn into Porfiry’s manipulative guile. Williams’ timing as the wily detective intent on entrapping his suspect is precise and effective in the true tradition of the crime genre. Carroll and Williams are superb, keeping an audience spellbound as they circle each other in their cunning game of cat and mouse. Carroll steadfastly plays the innocent while Williams subtly infuses Porfiry’s character with diversionary tactics to elicit a confession.
Ironically, it is not Porfiry who elicits the confession, but the softly spoken Sonia, played with teenage innocence and a conviction in the power of her faith to heal by Gazard. In Campbell-Lowe and Columbus’s condensed adaptation it is Sonia who resurrects the tormented Raskolnikov, placing a crucifix necklace about his neck and persuading him to kneel and kiss the earth in supplication before his God. It is faith that will redeem the guilty and banish the psychological torture. There is a further irony that Dostoevsky’s attack on the ideology of the Radical should be combated with the resurrecting power of religious faith. This gives pause for thought.
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| Christopher Samuel Carroll as Rasnolvikok. P.J. Williams as Inspector Porfiry |
The Street has once again staged a highly professional production of an Australian premiere. In the intimate Street Two Campbell-Lowe and Columbus’s succinct and sharply focused adaptation is riveting theatre at its very best. While Carroll plays Raskolnikov throughout, Williams also plays Sonia’s drunken father Marmaladov and Gazard plays the pawnbroker and her sister and Raskolnikov’s mother. Although first published in 1866, Stacey gives the adaptation an immediacy, reflected in designer Kathleen Kershaw’s flexible and functional platform set and contemporary, character-defining costuming. Vennonen’s sound design and Hawkins’ evocative lighting design lend the production an air of East European solemnity that heightens the sombre and mysterious mood of Dostoevsky’s psychologically probing story. Stacey’s insightful direction, supported by her creative team, has captured the very essence of Dostoevsky’s novel. The production is highly atmospheric, richly layered with meaning and gripping from beginning to end.
Production photography: Nathan Smith Photography and Novel Photographic