Yuriy Kordonskiy’s stage-adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” went up in the CFA last weekend. Let me get the “directorial concepts” out of the way first. There are three Raskolnikovs, the audience will sit on the CFA Theater stage, and the set will be four partial walls ripped apart so that we can remove all those ugly barriers of theater in a post-modern fashion that excited us Wesleyan students perhaps more than we’d like to admit. Everything will be painted white, and as soon as the murder happens, we’re going to splatter the walls with blood. Well. With that out of the way, how does it all work out?
The first two minutes at least are fantastic. When we still don’t have to worry about whether all of this avant-garde theaterism is serving any purpose, when we are still able to be simply mesmerized by a new vision of Kordonskiy’s mind, there can be no doubt it is a wonderfully executed performance. No noise, no plot, no challenges. Our Raskolnikovs enter their little box in an atmosphere of beautiful quietude and circle round, each mirroring the other like an improv group run out of better ideas. The highest praise of Kordonskiy’s work is that he is at once capable of reaching his goals of high concept while also leaving room for the success of such simple moments as these first few moments.
Indeed, these moments of desperate calm are the most powerful in the piece. Where Kordonskiy appears most relaxed in his execution, he allows the performances of the cast to guide the action in a slow and natural fashion. That wonderful performances shine among these threateningly adventurous theater concepts is crucial for the piece to succeed with audience members not caught up in the world of the avant-garde.
The cast plays each part with a great deal of enthusiasm and insight. Each Raskolnikov, played by Nick Gerry-Bullard ’06, Max Lesser ’07, and Rob Belushi ’04, fills out the role well. None attempts to steal the show from the others, and each takes chances to expand the character’s psyche in a new direction. It is a testament to their ability that I left the show knowing that the question of who was best was entirely moot; they all were so fully balanced as a whole. The role of burgeoning idol, however, belongs to Belushi, who played “Third.” He at times managed the sort of quiet, unwashed sexpot stare that has carried the careers of many of our great thespians, and seemed remarkably Raskolnikov-ian for it.
Kate MacCluggage ’04 impressed upon me the deep piety of Sonya with striking intensity, and fills out the role in near perfect balance of drunken swaying and frenzied longing. Sonya manages to steal our attention with as much ease as she enchants the mind of poor Raskolnikov.
Emily Frost ’06 admirably attempts to play a rather mean, old Russian widow—a stretch for most any Wesleyan student. She manages a solid turn at it, although she seemed at times to lack confidence in her abilities. I imagine she will bloom with more experience.
Of all the cast, Stew Miller ’05 pulls off the most remarkable performance. His rendering of Porfiry Petrovich, the friend-cum-inspector-cum-enemy of Raskolnikov, is spot-on throughout, equipped with impeccable comic timing and a dark and intimidating intelligence. Always exhibiting an incredible grasp of character and specificity of action, Miller commands presence on stage without stealing the show away from the stars. This talent is a sign of a matured actor, and many of the successful interplays of the show rely almost entirely on Miller’s easy and spirited enactment. Admittedly, though, I’m not entirely assured that the joy in his comedic feat wasn’t largely accomplished by the fearful chortling it triggered in our attending celebrity, Jim Belushi. Really, that man can laugh.
Kordonskiy’s most stunning display of ability comes at the conclusion of the first act. Retelling the famed dream narrative in which a group of peasants beats an aged horse to death, he makes the already-clear metaphor even more obvious for us. Bringing members of the cast to a dance of whipping and beating around the aged pawnbroker, we are treated to a scene of stunning ferocity. Were it not so excellently rendered, I would perhaps offer a complaint at its heavy-handedness, but as it was, it stands as a high point of the performance.
Indeed, that the show seems never again to reach such a high point after this scene is, perhaps, inevitable. It is enough to ask of a director to bring us such a moment; to beg a repeat is asking far too much. By the end, although it attempts an admirable return to form, the show simply never catches itself in quite the same fashion again, never manages to bring together the gimmicks and the passionate acting to provide such an ecstatic moment of perversity as we find in Dostoevsky’s original.
My disappointment with the interpretation lies only in what I felt could have been done with Raskolnikov. For, although at times we are seized by his sincerity and stunned by the intensity of silence upon stage, I felt that far too often we were asked to buy into a pseudo-Dostoevskian approach, perhaps more along the lines of his modern adopter Chuck Palahniuk, who understands terror and mania as products of an intense and frenetic chaos. I would have preferred more moments of the quiet that seized us at the beginning, and I feel the play would have been truer to the original had the clichéd moments of screaming schizophrenia been cut entirely. But it is a worthwhile and moving show of theater regardless.
In reflecting upon the piece, I am left with almost entirely favorable impressions. Kordonskiy and his cast and crew have adapted “Crime and Punishment” to the stage admirably, meeting the high demands set by such an innovative set and interpretation with great vigor. I hope the future brings us many more pieces in the CFA that are at once so audacious and so entertaining.
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