★ ★ ★
208 words, 1 minute read time.
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student in 19th Century St Petersburg, has become unhinged. He visits an elderly pawnbroker and gets a bad price for a watch that belonged to his late father. In his brain fever, he dreams of killing and robbing the elderly woman. Later, he pretends to have a silver cigarette case. When he shows a plain case to her, he strangles her and then batters her sister, Lizaveta to death.
The play revolves around Raskolnikov’s relationships with a wastrel of a drunkard who befriends him, Marmeledov and his daughter Sonya who has been reduced to prostitution by his drinking. He feuds with his sister Dunya’s fiancé, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin and is wracked by guilt at his actions and fear of discovery, almost giving himself away when visiting a police station to discuss an unrelated matter.
The young actor playing Raskolnikov carries off his guilt-wracked condition flawlessly. The audience, however, may have had some difficulty following the action. At some times voices came over the sound system as characters were speaking. At times two conversations were going on simultaneously at each edge of the stage area. Nevertheless,it’s a great introduction to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s great classic.
Reviewed by David Kerr
Till August 2024. Tickets here
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