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Life and Fate
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
VASILY GROSSMAN’S magnificent epic novel Life and Fate, performed by a renowned Russian theatre company and directed by the celebrated Lev Dodin, has all the potential for a memorable production.
But expectations are also accompanied by natural doubts. How can the settings and scale of this 700-page novel, performed in Russian by Maly Drama Theatre with surtitles and lasting three-and-a-half hours, capture the power and profundity of the novel?
Premiered in Paris in 2007, Dodin devised the production with actors from the company and the depth of feeling is evident throughout the performance.
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