Anna Karenina
Britol Old Vic

TOLSTOY’S epic novel of a doomed, scandalous affair in imperial Russia is considered one of the great works of literature. At almost a thousand pages in length with multiple subplots, it is told through both an objective omniscient narrator and subjective interior monologues detailing troubled relationships across rural and cosmopolitan settings. 

It is a mammoth challenge for any stage adaptation.

Lesley Hart’s version makes no bones about this two-hour, eight-person stage production being a Scottish-infused love story for a contemporary audience. From the opening salvo of invective from Dolly, not Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonsky as she is formally titled in the novel, we know we are in for a stripped down, dynamic modern reworking of the story.