By devising the new Meridian Theatre production of Russian Tales within a reflective context, Johnny Hanrahan is faithful to both his Russian authors. In this adaption from the work of Gogol and Dostoevsky, the adaption from Gogol is theatrically more successful.
Hanrahan acknowledges the influence of Gogol on his almost contemporary compatriot; in selecting The Overcoat and presenting it with Dostoevsky's The Double, the turmoil of the society, politics and literary aspirations of both writers is captured in each piece - justifying the production's indication of one as the mirror image of the other.
In fact, that very turmoil created or exaggerated the differences between these writers who struggled - in Gogol's case tragically - with contradictions in the very role of literature itself. Gogol's tale is that of the clerk, a man who has merely made a habit of living, obsessed with the new overcoat acquired with pain and quickly lost. Dostoevsky tells of the clerk pursued and conquered by his doppelganger, assisted by the cruel incomprehension of his colleagues. Both victims lurch through a miasma of social and religious bewilderment, but it is the differences, rather than the similarities between them which darken the material and hint at complexities which cannot be explored in this format or in the occasionally flattened language.
While style alone cannot clarify the confusions of The Double, the direction by Sarah Alexander hones a strong cast (led by Kieran Ahern in The Overcoat) into excellent ensemble playing - in itself a kind of metaphor for the material. The austere design by Dody Nash is a delight - a trace of cabaret, a hint of white nights, enhanced by Paul Denby's lighting. John Browne's music for The Overcoat is more commentary than score, but is beautifully played. Its choruses, however, emphasise the one thing missing from the production as a whole: its Russianess.
Russian Tales transfers to the Project Arts Centre, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, from tomorrow until Saturday; 1850 374 643/260 027
