Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 09 Nov @ 19:45
Adapting one of the giants of Russian literature for the stage isn’t a task to be sniffed at. And yet Chris Hannan has turned Dostoyevsky‘s 600+ page opus on the true nature and cost of crime into a taut production; dripping with blood, sweat and raw human confusion.
The set looks the part, stripped back and exposed, with moth eaten-sofas and junk shop paraphernalia conjuring both the atmosphere and the mind-set of Raskolnikov (Adam Best), the whining would-be political idealist. Effects are also well handled: in particular, the decision to splatter gore across the kind of see-through, abatoir-esque curtains is chilling. We don’t need to see the corpses to be assured of their fate.
However, not every trick works and there’s a nagging feeling that something is missing in the first half, despite the high quality of the script. The rest of the cast’s constant background presence has a definite hit and miss element. When they join as a group and sing with haunting, collective despair, it’s mesmerising. Less enjoyable is the heavily miked-up breathing that aims to heighten tension, sadly producing the opposite effect.
Happily, this sense of lack totally disappears when the lights dim again. It may be because the pace of action picks up; we open on a superb mock-interrogation scene, as Raskolnikov struggles to hold onto his sanity. Or it may be because the acting, occasionally patchy before, bursts with renewed vigour, as we see more deeply into the minds of the central characters.
Best switches seamlessly from a blissful unawareness of the cost of his actions, to increased bouts of hate-filled derangement. Jessica Hardwick is equally excellent, investing Christian prostitute Sonya with weight and dignity, and avoiding any clichés of tarts and hearts. The production truly excels when these two characters are alone with one another, a circumstance which increases as things hurl towards the explosive finalé. A fitting adaptation of a difficult work – and an exploration of the human mind that feels almost Shakespearian. Bold, brutal and beautiful.