HAVING grown up devouring Classics Illustrated comic books, I was predisposed to appreciate “Crime and Punishment,” which Chicago’s Writers’ Theatre has dis tilled into a 90-minute, three-performer play.
What I didn’t expect was the artistry and skillful economy with which Dostoevsky’s daunting novel has been adapted for this noteworthy production, now playing at the 59E59 Theaters as part of the GoChicago! Festival.
Playwrights Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus have jettisoned many of the book’s characters and subplots, reducing it to its narrative essence. What they haven’t lost are the psychological complexities in this tale of a young man, Ralskolnikov (Scott Parkinson), who has committed a double murder, and the wily police investigator (John Judd) who’s trying to wrest a confession from him.
Although performed on a set consisting of little more than white wooden walls and a giant crucifix, the piece is intensely theatrical. Michael Halberstam’s staging effectively uses dramatic sound and lighting effects to convey the guilt and torment afflicting the central character after he has axed two old women to death.
The scenes between the investigator and his quarry are particularly gripping, playing like a 19th-century precursor of “Columbo” and “Law & Order.”
The complex moral themes of the book are equally well handled, with judicious snippets of Dostoevsky’s poetic language conveying the story via flashbacks.
The overall excellence of the cast, which includes Susan Bennett as the prostitute Sonia and several other minor characters, goes a long way towards making this potentially tricky theatrical condensation work as well as it does.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St.; (212) 279-4200. Through Dec. 2.