Crime and Punishment (NHB Modern Plays): Stage Version

An exciting, fresh and accessible adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s masterful novel.

Starving, destitute student Raskolnikov is surrounded by the harsh injustices of the world: the grime of poverty and prostitution, unscrupulous pawnbrokers chasing debts, and a sister about to marry someone she doesn’t love to keep her family alive. His guilt is unbearable. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer any chance of redemption.

As Raskolnikov enters a dangerous cat and mouse game with the examining magistrate, a psychological thriller unfolds that probes how far humanity might go when driven by disillusionment and whether any crime can be justified by a higher purpose.

'Both a classic come to life and an urgent new work which develops its own style and language rather than slavishly imitating the text and it’s all the better for it.' - Independent

'Powerful... To find a theatrical structure, adaptor Chris Hannan roams freely through the novel. He turns interior monologue into direct address, thins out subplots and reconfigures the sequence of events to fashion a fluid route through the story.' - Guardian

'Magnificent... a fluent, beautiful, profoundly theatrical account of one of the great stories of world literature' - Scotsman