The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre 17 March – 2 April. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
I must admit that I have never made it all the way through Anna Karenina, on page or screen. I know the plot, and I know that it is a brilliantly written novel, but I just don’t want to read about the socio-political idiosyncrasies of the Russian peasantry and farming methods, while most film adaptations make Anna unlikeable and annoying.
You can always count on Arrows & Traps to breathe new and exciting life into a classic, and this version of Anna Karenina doesn’t disappoint. Helen Edmundson’s adaptation manages to condense the hefty tome into 2 hours and 25 minutes of emotional and intense storytelling. The throngs of aristocrats and peasants are trimmed down to 15 characters, played by a cast of 8.
Anna Karenina, married to a respectable government official, begins an affair with dashing Vronsky. She falls pregnant and their struggle to be together, Russian society’s double standards about married men and women having affairs, and Anna’s own choices and demons mean their romance will end in tragedy.
Levin is a shy landed gentleman, whose proposal to Kitty has been rebuffed as she is smitten with Vronsky. He withdraws to his estate and throws himself into new farming methods and study of the peasants, trying to find peace after his previous youthful debauchery. He finally realise that Kitty is the only woman he loves and returns to Moscow to propose again. They marry but find that living together is not the idyll they had imagined.
Edmundson intertwines the two stories sensitively, using Levin and Anna as narrators and co-conspirators in their choices. They constantly ask each other “Where are you now?” to explain plot and location shifts, and watch helplessly as they each make dubious choices, often berating each other between scenes and discussing hypocrisy, faith and mortality. This gives Anna’s motivation and mental disintegration much more focus, even in the short running time, and allows Ellie Jacob to make Anna more rounded and sympathetic; her increasing tenderness towards Death (creeping on stage at every opportunity) as her morphine addiction builds is beautifully played. David Paisley’s Levin is sweet and frustrating in his adoration of Kitty and his often patronising talk of his peasant workers. Together, they grip the audience’s attention with their chemistry and bring a sense of continuity to the episodic plot.
The set is bare, relying on Beth Gibbs fantastic lighting design and cast movement to provide a sense of place and memory. This works brilliantly – the railway and the horse race scenes being the standouts, although the writing in the horse race, with the cast describing Vronsky’s equine mount as he is mounting Anna, may have had a lot to do with my loving that scene! Director Ross McGregor has managed to create an intimate play that still has a sense of the sweeping scale of Tolstoy’s novel.
The entire cast give wonderful performances, Adam Elliott’s Karenin is a very English Russian aristocrat, with wonderfully correct and measured lines, delivered with a delightful comic touch. Spencer Lee Osborne plays each of his characters with a twinkle in his eye. His priest had the audience in fits of laughter with just facial expressions and hand gestures. Will Mytum’s Vronsky is every inch the shallow arrogant aristocrat, and his scenes as Nikolai were literally breath-taking – I thought he was about to lose a lung. Cornelia Baumann, Pippa Caddick and Hannah Wilder almost stole the show with a few minutes of hysterical eye and fan fluttering.
This production has completely changed my mind about Anna Karenina, and I may just be tempted to have another crack at the novel. This is a wonderful full blooded production that is simply unmissable.