This play is, without a doubt, the noisiest production I have ever seen at Chichester. Beginning calmly enough with Anna Karenina remembering her life and touching lightly any objects with memories for her. I wasn’t at all sure how the different sizes of rocking horses related to her memories, but they came in useful later in the show.
The calm soon changes as the total fury of aggrieved womanhood erupts onto the stage, with Dolly (Naomi Sheldon) berating her husband Stiva (Jonnie Broadbent) at excessive volume for his errant ways as well as constantly providing her with multiple children. His excuses / explanations are at the same volume, as Dolly continues her tirade.
A quote from the beginning of the book, “happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” No doubt at all which families this production is concentrating on.
Dolly’s sister Kitty has no better luck when persuaded by her mother to choose to marry the rich Count Vronsky, but is really in love with Levin, a man who, despite belonging to the aristocracy, prefers life in the country and is concerned about the life of the uneducated peasants and at the injustice in the Russian system of government. Interesting that Levin’s story looking for peace and prosperity for all closely follows Tolstoy’s own life, whose book, promoting peace and non-violence, even inspired a young Mohandas Gandhi.
Max Jones's set is huge and opulent, the richness shown in the drapes and magnificent costumes by Ruth Hall, and there is a huge cast of characters, as well as an excessive number of chairs lined up at the back. These chairs often take a tour of the stage (helped by humans). I have been unable to think of a reason for that! It seemed that every nook and cranny of the enormous stage was filled to bursting, which resulted in a sense of clutter, equal to the clutter in the lives and minds of the characters.
Having read the book—well halfway through at least—I noted that most of the ‘dialogue’ was within the head of each character in their thoughts and beliefs. How would that be translated to the stage? Well, Natalie Dormer, in a fabulous performance, is particularly good at conveying her thoughts by attitude and expression, and when her spoken words are at complete odds with her real feelings, we are occasionally given access with a break through the fourth wall and comments to the audience, a trick which is used a few times and is usually very funny. In fact, there is, surprisingly, quite a lot of humour throughout the play. An understated performance by Tomiwa Edun on the "joys of growing old", and Les Dennis as peasant Petka driving a ‘carriage’ are worthy of more than a few laughs.
Also included is Death—before that of Anna, Russian-born Ivan Ivashkin as Levin’s reprobate brother gives a very dramatic impression of a dying man.
Everything is in this story, from woman’s rights to dissatisfaction with the government, and how to deal with a world which was changing. Railways were being built or extended, electricity had come to stay and there was a war about to start. The comparison with today’s world is obvious, and how do we deal with it? No wonder it’s a very long book, condensed into a three-hour show.
Movement by Ayse Tashkiran ought to be mentioned too. There is a lot of movement, all very well controlled and directed. Also, the three onstage musicians add a lot to the atmosphere.
There were comments from some of the audience that they just couldn’t understand what it was all about, and I’m glad I read at least some of the story beforehand and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would definitely recommend Phillip Breen’s very ambitious world première, but a little familiarity with the story would be helpful, and the ending happily gives us hope for the future.