ANNA KARENINA
Photo: Marc Brenner
Expectations riding high, the lights fell in the main house at Chichester Festival Theatre for a new working of Tolstoy’s novel. The stage was filled with chairs, all shapes and sizes, nursery furniture and toys, and the thrust stage, bedecked with ornate parquet floor was edged with vintage, shell shaped theatrical footlights. The overall effect? Clutter.
Jonnie Broadbent. Photo: Marc Brenner
The cast emerge in beautiful period costume, lavish, richly adorned and coloured, then in contrast to such delicious period detail we are given a script so entrenched in modern language that it jars. Dolly and Stiva, Naomi Sheldon and Jonnie Broadent, are quite brilliant and pull the whole together as they battle in those opening moments and for a while, a short while, I am engaged. It has energy, vibrancy and humour. And sadly that for me is the best part of the evening, from there on in the whole is larded with tricksy nonsense, the cluttered set is further cluttered by ideas, so many ideas, elements of physical theatre, fragmented narrative… and the result is confused and confusing.
It’s not all negative, there are some very fine performances here from the ensemble, but some disappointments too. Vronsky is nowhere near as charming as I expected of the role, dashing maybe but not sexy. This is a passionate story of love and infidelity but it plays out at times like a Whitehall farce.
In act two the thing pulls together with more direction and clarity and the tale unravels with more pace. Then once again the “ideas” start to emerge. A prolonged death scene is punctuated by sharp blackouts and if we the audience were in any doubt as to what is happening, the word Death is projected onto the canopy that hangs over the stage, Death it says with a full stop! Just in case we are still in any doubt that Nikolai is about to shuffle off this mortal coil. Somewhat patronising for both audience and actor. And a device employed only once in the whole production.
We also get some members of the cast breaking the fourth wall, apparently permissible once their character has married? Why? I am still pondering this 12 hours later.
The recurring theme of trains is delivered by the cast emulating the screeching of brakes vocally, a carriage ride by the positioning of three of the now ubiquitous chairs and a tiny rocking horse. And the servant driving the carriage, played by Les Dennis in an evening where he takes on so many roles and so many costume changes, has to endure a barrage of cursing, possibly the most times you will hear the ‘F’ word used on any stage. And once again the cliche emerges that the working classes and servants are portrayed with comedy northern and Scottish accents.
Finally of course one has to mention Anna herself, played by Natalie Dormer and played assuredly. Her presence is clear, her delivery sharp, her decline into substance abuse handled without melodrama but she is swamped by the general clutter of the production.
The one thing that I left with was a need to read the novel, all 239 chapters, and a desire to discover how and why adapter and director Phillip Breen made the decisions he has made here.
Andrew Kay
13 June
Chichester Festival Theatre
Rating:
Far too long. Didn’t leave until 11pm. Second half slow, full of shouting and swearing (the F word). Cannot fault to acting or the set however no standing ovation, and jumps around a lot. A classic butchered by Philip Breen.
I agree with much of this. The fibre glass rocking horses made me want to scream and the child with the toy train was crass. Also Vronksky was just not glamorous; I can’t imagine leaving husband ,child and position in society for him. On the swearing by Dolly, she and Kitty are princesses for goodness sake. The whole point is that she is trapped in a ghastly world of male entitlement and crudeness that she can barely comprehend. I could go on…….
A rare Chichester disappointment.
I left early for all the reasons mentioned above. I didn’t want my reading of the book to be spoilt by watching any more of PB’s interpretation. Natalie Dormer was superb, a great talent. Vronksy was nowhere near as handsome and engaging as he should have been (not helped by ill fitting costumes). And Kitty began the play as a delightful young princess but then became more working class.
I love the book, have read it twice and so was really looking forward to this production of a treasured read. Yes, I agree, all the acting was good. But this adaptation could not come near fulfilling the depth of the characterisation of the novel, it felt like a TV soap at times with shouting and swearing and carried no dignity. The novel is a slow build with detailed chapters describing homes, city and country, families, people’s lives, and dreaming. I was astounded at how quickly the play swept through significant events, there was little opportunity to feel emotion and absorb possibilities and consequences as we were on to the next thing before you realised a switch had been made. The set with numerous chairs, seemed artificial and I was uncertain what some objects were. I would have preferred to have known we were in Russia with a traditional backdrop. There were fine musicians, but the discordant music repeatedly employed became rudely jarring. You are probably going to guess I left at the interval, I could not bear to see my treasured novel trashed further. So I quite agree with many of Margaret’s comments.