Book 'Em

Crime And Punishment

by David Anthony Fox

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Published: Oct 25, 2006

There's a cute story that shortly after the release of Cecil B. DeMille's panoramic The Ten Commandments, an entrepreneurial retailer placed a stack of Bibles in his shop window with a placard reading: "You've seen the movie. Now read the book!"

Adaptations are necessarily different, of course. (In the case above I prefer the faster-paced film, but that's another story.) So when the Arden presents an 80-minute, three-actor play crafted from Dostoyevsky's epic Crime and Punishment — sample paperback edition: 465 pages, and that's with itty-bitty print — you'd be well-served to forget the novel, and consider the show on its own merits. (If you've never actually read the novel, this should be easy.)

What we have here is an interrogation. Police Officer Porfiry plays good cop while talking to Raskolnikov, a brilliant young man suspected of murdering two women with an axe. Raskolnikov, increasingly febrile and mostly speaking around the crime rather than about it, offers his theory that rebellious acts by extraordinary men may be justified within a system that permanently mires the lower class.

Is there any validity to Raskolnikov's shocking ideas? Is he evil, mad, compelling, visionary — all of the above? Complicating our ability to find the "truth": Raskolnikov's friendship with Sonia, a deeply religious girl forced by desperate poverty into prostitution, suggesting a compassionate side. Sounds like a better-than-average Law & Order, doesn't it? That's the problem. This Crime and Punishment (it probably should be called Crime & Punishment) is all bold strokes, no nuances. The spookily ramshackle set is gray, gray and more gray. Each actor plays a single effect: Julianna Zinkel's Sonia is kindly, Christopher Donahue's Porfiry is unctuous, Cody Nickell's Raskolnikov is turbulent.

In the end, we can't look at the play without thinking of the novel, because Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus's script won't let us. They're so concerned with giving us plot details that the interrogation is regularly put on hold so we can see brief scenelets of things that happened before. (These are done flashback-style, in yet another bow to television.)

There's enough theatricality in Aaron Posner's production to keep your attention, but — and this applies especially to middle school students seeking an easy out — do not think that it's Crime and Punishment! The Arden C&P follows their A Prayer for Owen Meany, a similar adaptation/reduction. I'm relieved to see that their next two adult shows are not based on novels. We wouldn't want this estimable company to turn into Theater's Digest.

(d_fox@citypaper.net)

Crime And Punishment

Through Dec. 10,Arden Theatre Co.,40 N. Second St.,215-922-1122,
www.ardentheatre.org

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