Jack Studio Theatre – until 26 September 2026
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
Presenting Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment as a 90-minute adaptation is an ambitious undertaking, but Jack Jacobs has risen to the challenge with style for Off By Heart.
Jacobs has condensed Dostoevsky’s novel into an atmospheric and claustrophobic chamber piece with a cast of three playing the main protagonists. Jacobs plays Raskolnikov, the alienated student living off his mother’s meagre handouts. Festering in his tiny room and convinced of his own status as extraordinary and therefore above moral laws, Raskolnikov plots the murder of the pawnbroker he often visits – deciding that her death would benefit the community.
The piteous and destitute life surrounding him is illustrated through the drunkard Marmeladov (Andrew Callaghan) who drinks away all the money earned by his daughter Sonya (Faye Bishop) as she prostitutes herself each day. The pawnbroker is depicted in a grotesque mask and a cartoonish voice speaking in Russian – projecting the lowly animalistic view of her harboured by Raskolnikov. After the murder, and the unplanned killing of the pawnbroker’s sister who arrived home early, Raskolnikov’s confidence about his actions begins to ebb and the investigation by Porfiry (Andrew Callaghan) makes him question everything.
By necessity, Jacobs has written a lot of exposition, but in his role as director he ensures that the emotional depths of each character are portrayed. Migle Dulevicius’s lighting design and the unsettling sound design create an increasingly intense atmosphere as Raskolnikov’s ideas and ego crumble.
Jacobs never makes Raskolnikov likeable – even when he seems to have found redemption there is always the hint of self-serving survival rather than the honourable sacrifices made by Sonya. The nervous energy and boiling inner conflict as guilt overwhelms him is palpable in Jacobs’ impressive performance. Faye Bishop is a saintly and slightly stern Sonya – a wonderful contrast to Raskolnikov but equally conflicted. Andrew Callaghan is hawkish and wild-eyed as Porfiry, giving the investigator an almost vicious enjoyment of his cat and mouse games with Raskolnikov, casting doubt over his heartfelt appeals for the truth and at the end of their encounter.
This production is charged with disquieting energy and psychological depth. Jacobs has succeeded in distilling the themes of Dostoevsky’s novel into an effective and compelling play.