Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Anna Kar enina, now to be seen in a fine production at the Samuel Beckett, finds the sweep of the story and its characters, and uses the power of theatre and its illusions to bring them to vivid life.
Anna, married to a complacent bureaucrat with whom she has a son, is settled into a life of conformity, sacrifice and making do - until she meets the dashing Count Vronsky. Her repressed yearning for a life of passion breaks loose, and together they flout the rigid conventions of their social peers.
Around them swirl a company of relations and friends, all drawn with the depth and understanding which gives the parent work its classic status. The large playing area has a number of small platforms. Sewn into the overriding naturalism are surreal set-pieces; a horse race, a ball, a society party and more, cleanly conceived and executed.
Director Michael Caven elicits ensemble acting of the highest quality from his cast. The leads - Nicole Rourke's Anna, Christopher Gausselin's Vron sky, Tom Hopkins's Karenin and, most impressively, John Ryan's Levin - are excellent, and Una McNulty, Susan Church, Des Fleming, Rita Hamill, Aoife Molony and Timothy O'Riordan are fine in the numerous smaller roles. Production is by Theatreworks company, another plume in their cap.
Plays until September 19th. To book, phone: 01-6082461.
