Bros. K - LIVE

Russian literature and the theatre make for a nice Saturday evening. We checked out the local Circle X Theatre Company's production of The Brothers Karamazov. The plot is full of love and hate and sex and violence, and all of this leads to both a rollicking good time and a fair amount of overacting. (Forgiveable.) The set was kind of fun - very minimal, with Russian "graffiti" carved or chalked in. Among the phrases that appeared multiple times - part 2, sinner, heart. Most of the cast members looked just right. Alyosha looked ridiculously Russian (although darker than I had once pictures); Dmitri was nice and swarthy; Ivan was picture-perfect; and Katya appropriately goody-goody. Grushenka was played by an understudy, one of the producers, and the regular actress probably is a better fit. Anthony Clarvoe's adaptation of the Dostoevsky novel departs from the original fairly often, with varying levels of success, and some of the character's line rang false - too anachronistic. But all in all, live theater rocks, and seeing the play made me want to re-read the book. Which is never a bad thing.