Crime and Punishment

Russian literature of the nineteenth century produced so many classics that it is futile to name them all. All did, however, have one thing in common – their enormous length. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is by no means an exception to this rule and this production is an audacious attempt to bring what is to a large extent a psychological thriller to the stage.

Raskolnikov is a student forced to give up his studies due to poverty. In order to better his finances he kills the local moneylender, an old woman, and her sister. What follows is his attempt to deal with his guilt, confounding inspectors and his family whilst finding a path to redemption.

Condensing over six hundred pages into an hour and twenty minutes is no easy feat, although it has been condensed into forty-five minutes at the Fringe before. Katya Kamotskaia’s adaptation picks and chooses from the original events, creating a script which, while covering most major events, will probably leave those not acquainted with the novel bamboozled. The action often confusingly leaps around as the stage and is imaginatively divided into split scenes.

Kamotskaia’s script does, however, succeed in capturing the spirit of the various characters. Fergus Johnston’s portrayal of Raskolnikov’s state of mind is admirable as he uneasily jitters across the stage, always managing to look like he would prefer to be alone.

However, the successful rendering of characters to the stage is not enough. Patchy covering of events too often leaves the audience confused, faced with the task of filling in blank spaces with knowledge garnered from the book itself. If you haven’t read the novel this will probably leave you feeling bemused. If you have, it can be considered an intriguing attempt to bring Dostoyevski’s classic to stage, but will still leave many with a feeling of being "lost in St Petersburg."