Pared-down 'Crime and Punishment' Delves Deep

For those unfamiliar with Crime and Punishment, the adaptation at Centerstage may seem at first like a cat-and-mouse style thriller. As the play opens, a detective, Porfiry, interrogates a student, Raskolnikov, about a brutal double murder. Raskolnikov remains detached under questioning, admitting that yes, he had visited the pawnbroker. But no, he was not responsible for killing the old woman and her sister with an axe. It’s clear that the detective does not believe him, and is looking for the bedraggled, impoverished student to slip up.

It doesn’t take much more experience with detective drama than an episode or two of Law and Order or a dabbling with Wilkie Collins to presume that Raskolnikov did indeed commit the crime. In fact, with only three characters listed on the program, it’s easy to grasp that this play isn’t a "whodunit," it’s a "why-he-did-it."

In his 1866 novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky has his protagonist commit the grisly, crime within the first few short chapters, and then goes on for another 500 or so pages to examine the deed's moral, intellectual and spiritual implications.

Playwrights Curt Columbus and Marilyn Campbell do a nice job detailing the protagonist’s—and by implication, the novelist’s—ideas about his place in the social order and his potential for redemption. Raskonikov’s two-edged crime, committed with two sides of the same axe, is a metaphor for the two sides of his character: the calculating hero who, like Napoleon, believes he is above the laws of God and man when he plots the murder of the parasitic old woman; and the base creature of passion, who reacts instinctively when taken by surprise by the pawnbroker’s sister. The only question is, will one of these men seek forgiveness?

Performed on a dark, sparsely furnished set with rough painted wood floors, an ominous staircase that soars above our heads at stage right and a door with a satisfying slam to indicate a change of setting, this 90-minute, uninterrupted stage version is essentially a pared-down plot synopsis. Scenes and characters have been hacked out, and Raskolnikov’s obsessive rumination is peppered across stretches of philosophical examination disguised as dialogue.

Eric Feldman’s Raskolnikov is a feckless grad student with a Midwestern twang, whose indecision seems age-appropriate, while John Leonard Thompson and Lauren Culpepper in the supporting roles—police inspector, the fallen angel Sonia, Sonia’s ne’er-do-well father, and the old pawnbroker—show versatility and ease. But more often, they become foils for Raskolnikov’s musings, and the idea-laden dialogue obscures character development. If you’re expecting a thriller, settle in for something more formidable—perhaps a foreshadowing of contemporary psychological crime dramas that examine the killers’ motives. In any case, if it’s easy to figure out the crime, the punishment is an entirely different matter.

Crime and Punishment by Curt Columbus and Marilyn Campbell from the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, at Centerstage through May 15. For tickets, call 410-332-0033 or visit centerstage.org.