Anna Karenina The Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh 17th May 2023 Review
Anna Karenina is at the Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh from 13 May to 3 June and if you are a lover of the original book by Leo Tolstoy (first published in book form in 1878) or any of the many film, television and stage adaptations of it, then this is a production to add to your “to watch list”.
I have to admit that before reviewing this production I was not sure that it was going to adapt that well to the stage. Many reasons for this, not only has the story been re-told so many times, but condensing the original text that approached some 900 pages and the interwoven stories of three very distinct couples and interweaving relationships with one another into a performance time of only some 150 minutes (with interval) was always going to be a large compromise of scenes and information. To tell this epic story in such a short period of time but still retain its core elements was going to take a writer, director, and production team with great skill.
Thankfully, this production of Anna Karenina has this level of talent involved in its creation and the initial challenge that writer Lesley Hart (after Tolstoy) set Polina Kalinina (director) not only to choose a Russian classic novel but adapt it to the stage in a way that for Polina brought the warmth, humour and love of life of the Russian people to life has more than been met. This version of Anna Karenina obviously became something of a “labour of love” for them both over the four plus years that it took for this project to finally come to the stage. The end result is something new whilst at the same time retaining the essence of the original story, something that is definitely Russian, but also something that is very Scottish. Here Russia and Scotland find a common ground in far more than just a Robert Burns song.
To bring this story and its very strong and distinctive characters to life on stage was always going to require a very strong cast, and although we are still firmly set in the time of an Imperial Russia, a very tight script allows for this to also be a very contemporary work with personal dynamics between people that we can all easily identify with.
Bringing all of these very individual and distinctive characters to the stage were
Robert Akodoto Vronsky
Lindsey Campbell Anna Karenina
Stephen McCole Karenin
Angus Miller Stiva
Jamie Marie Leary Dolly
Tallulah Greive Kitty
Ray Sesay Levin
So much of this story of course revolves around Anna, a woman who is unhappy with her marriage to Karenin and longs for so much more in her life. Anna also knows just how harshly friends and society will judge her if she follows her heart and her dreams. This is a woman that so many other women today can readily identify with, and Lindsey Campbell is superb in her portrayal of Anna. This Anna is a woman full of life and passion, a woman who experiences great joy and great sorrow, and Lindsey Campbell gives us all of these different faces and emotions of Anna whilst also giving us an insight into the inner turmoil that was often the driving force of her life.
Anna of course needs a strong counterbalance to the turmoil that she is creating not only in her life, but the lives of those closest to her, and Stephen McCole’s performance of a man who stands to lose not only his wife, but his reputation and social standing in a very regulated society is both powerful and sensitive when needed. His transition from an almost angelic figure to a man full of conflicting emotions leading to even hatred of Anna was so well done.
Dolly (Jamie Marie Leary) and Kitty (Tallulah Greive) are not only a classic sister act, but at times they have a very distinctive humour in their dialogue that makes them very contemporary and very Scottish. This counterbalance of light to Anna’s at times darker character is finely balanced by both Jamie and Tallulah.
There are so many levels on which Tolstoy’s novel can be interpreted, although one theme is the unjustness at which a woman in this society is judged harshly by her actions whilst a man gets almost no such punishment is central to this story, but despite this, this production of Anna Karenina is very much a woman’s story full of strong and powerful women who so often leave their men in no doubt of who is really in charge.
Here, Vronsky (Robert Akodoto), Stiva (Angus Miller), and Levin (Ray Sesay) personify a time and place that allowed those of wealth, status and power to often do little more with their lives than thinking of ways of spending their money whilst finding ways to enjoy themselves, and indulge in their own pleasures with an almost complete indifference to those around them. To be fair, Levin does, it seems, have a little bit more to think about, a more caring side to him. Three very strong performances given here from Robert, Angus and Ray.
This production has had a lot of care and attention to detail given to it, and costume, set, sound and lighting design come together with an imaginative script that allows the cast to not only draw you into the world of Anna Karenina, but to care about what happens to Anna, her family and friends.
The big questions raised by Tolstoy in his book still remain relevant today. What is true love? What is personal happiness, and many other questions with no real answers. Sadly though, how women are often judged by society for their actions and the attitudes of those in positions of wealth and power seem to be for a large part unchanged over the years since Tolstoy wrote his original words.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I have to admit that before reviewing this production I was not sure that it was going to adapt that well to the stage. Many reasons for this, not only has the story been re-told so many times, but condensing the original text that approached some 900 pages and the interwoven stories of three very distinct couples and interweaving relationships with one another into a performance time of only some 150 minutes (with interval) was always going to be a large compromise of scenes and information. To tell this epic story in such a short period of time but still retain its core elements was going to take a writer, director, and production team with great skill.
Thankfully, this production of Anna Karenina has this level of talent involved in its creation and the initial challenge that writer Lesley Hart (after Tolstoy) set Polina Kalinina (director) not only to choose a Russian classic novel but adapt it to the stage in a way that for Polina brought the warmth, humour and love of life of the Russian people to life has more than been met. This version of Anna Karenina obviously became something of a “labour of love” for them both over the four plus years that it took for this project to finally come to the stage. The end result is something new whilst at the same time retaining the essence of the original story, something that is definitely Russian, but also something that is very Scottish. Here Russia and Scotland find a common ground in far more than just a Robert Burns song.
To bring this story and its very strong and distinctive characters to life on stage was always going to require a very strong cast, and although we are still firmly set in the time of an Imperial Russia, a very tight script allows for this to also be a very contemporary work with personal dynamics between people that we can all easily identify with.
Bringing all of these very individual and distinctive characters to the stage were
Robert Akodoto Vronsky
Lindsey Campbell Anna Karenina
Stephen McCole Karenin
Angus Miller Stiva
Jamie Marie Leary Dolly
Tallulah Greive Kitty
Ray Sesay Levin
So much of this story of course revolves around Anna, a woman who is unhappy with her marriage to Karenin and longs for so much more in her life. Anna also knows just how harshly friends and society will judge her if she follows her heart and her dreams. This is a woman that so many other women today can readily identify with, and Lindsey Campbell is superb in her portrayal of Anna. This Anna is a woman full of life and passion, a woman who experiences great joy and great sorrow, and Lindsey Campbell gives us all of these different faces and emotions of Anna whilst also giving us an insight into the inner turmoil that was often the driving force of her life.
Anna of course needs a strong counterbalance to the turmoil that she is creating not only in her life, but the lives of those closest to her, and Stephen McCole’s performance of a man who stands to lose not only his wife, but his reputation and social standing in a very regulated society is both powerful and sensitive when needed. His transition from an almost angelic figure to a man full of conflicting emotions leading to even hatred of Anna was so well done.
Dolly (Jamie Marie Leary) and Kitty (Tallulah Greive) are not only a classic sister act, but at times they have a very distinctive humour in their dialogue that makes them very contemporary and very Scottish. This counterbalance of light to Anna’s at times darker character is finely balanced by both Jamie and Tallulah.
There are so many levels on which Tolstoy’s novel can be interpreted, although one theme is the unjustness at which a woman in this society is judged harshly by her actions whilst a man gets almost no such punishment is central to this story, but despite this, this production of Anna Karenina is very much a woman’s story full of strong and powerful women who so often leave their men in no doubt of who is really in charge.
Here, Vronsky (Robert Akodoto), Stiva (Angus Miller), and Levin (Ray Sesay) personify a time and place that allowed those of wealth, status and power to often do little more with their lives than thinking of ways of spending their money whilst finding ways to enjoy themselves, and indulge in their own pleasures with an almost complete indifference to those around them. To be fair, Levin does, it seems, have a little bit more to think about, a more caring side to him. Three very strong performances given here from Robert, Angus and Ray.
This production has had a lot of care and attention to detail given to it, and costume, set, sound and lighting design come together with an imaginative script that allows the cast to not only draw you into the world of Anna Karenina, but to care about what happens to Anna, her family and friends.
The big questions raised by Tolstoy in his book still remain relevant today. What is true love? What is personal happiness, and many other questions with no real answers. Sadly though, how women are often judged by society for their actions and the attitudes of those in positions of wealth and power seem to be for a large part unchanged over the years since Tolstoy wrote his original words.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com