Anna Karenina
Britol Old Vic

TOLSTOY’S epic novel of a doomed, scandalous affair in imperial Russia is considered one of the great works of literature. At almost a thousand pages in length with multiple subplots, it is told through both an objective omniscient narrator and subjective interior monologues detailing troubled relationships across rural and cosmopolitan settings. 

It is a mammoth challenge for any stage adaptation.

Lesley Hart’s version makes no bones about this two-hour, eight-person stage production being a Scottish-infused love story for a contemporary audience. From the opening salvo of invective from Dolly, not Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonsky as she is formally titled in the novel, we know we are in for a stripped down, dynamic modern reworking of the story. 

Although lacking much of the depth and complexity of the novel and structured around easily accessible, emotionally dramatic episodes following a community of contrasting characters, this production, directed with imagination and flair by Polina Kalinina, is much more than a Karenina for the soap opera generation. 

Tableaux, rewinds, a complex soundscape, scenes spliced together and stylised sequences help convey the multi-layered nature of Tolstoy’s work while the strong cast imbue their roles with a real sense of independent life.

Lindsay Campbell as Anna gives a passionately intense performance as her struggle between social expectations and her true feelings becomes ever more destructive. Her husband, who is played not totally unsympathetically as an emotionally restrained bureaucrat by Stephen McCole, and her lover, the headstrong, emotionally driven Vronsky (Robert Akodoto) are the clearly opposing forces that drive her towards a tragic self-realisation.

Angus Miller’s profligate yet likeable Stiva, Jamie Marie Leary’s outspoken Dolly, Tallulah Greive’s youthfully vivacious Kitty and Ray Sesay’s gauchely sincere Levin create engagingly volatile relationship tensions in the subplots surrounding and impacting on Anna’s life.

At points the pace becomes slightly overwhelming as marriages form and dissolve and characters battle with internal and external demons, but this joint Bristol Old Vic and Edinburgh Royal Lyceum production works in many ways and reminds a whole new audience of how modern and relevant so many of the themes and issues of Anna Karenina still are.

Runs until June 24, box office: bristololdvic.org.uk