Raskol, a Ten Thousand Things production at Minnesota Opera Center on 5/8/09

By: John Olive

Kris Nelson as Raskol - Photo by Peter Vitale

Did he?

In Raskol, Kira Obolensky's rich deconstruction of Dostoevsky's classic Crime And Punishment, currently enjoying a masterful staging by Ten Thousand Things Theater (at the Minnesota Opera Center, 620 N. 1st St., through May 24, tenthousandthings.org), the question of Raskolnikov's guilt is deliberately and potently unclear. Did Raskol (as Obolensky calls him; he's played with sly intensity by Kris Nelson) really kill the pawnbroker and her dim half-sister? We don't witness the murder as we emphatically do in the Dostoevsky novel. We meet the two victims as grizzled dream figures, the product of Raskol's feverish late night imaginings. How reliable are they, really? What Raskol did, or didn't do, is never explicitly spelled out.

Instead, Obolensky gives us Raskol's life in a fast-moving and surprisingly comic swirl – the grasping but sweet landlady (Lisa Clair), his friend Muzhkin (Luverne Seifert), Raskol's mother (Karen Wiese-Thompson), Marmelade the drunk (Seifert again – he very nearly steals the show with his lightning quick character changes) his sister's wealthy but strange fiancé Leonard Wolf (Craig Johnson), and many others. The play moves quickly and as it does we get tidbits of information about the murders. Could he have? Raskol visits the scene of the crime. His increasingly strange behavior causes the other characters to suspect him. We become aware of his blood-stained hands (the theater is small and the play is performed with the houselights up full). 

It's at this point that Obolensky gives us her most brilliant creation of all: Detective Perfidy Petrovich, the investigator (superbly played by Charles Schuminski). Arch, well-dressed, almost prim, calm and incisive, Detective Perfidy cuts to the heart of Raskol's guilt. But is he really a policeman? Could he be the product of Raskol's over-heated mind? Are we, the audience, somehow complicit in this crime? Obolensky is not giving out easy answers. Instead, she continues to fly through the story: Raskol confesses, is tried and convicted, sent to Siberia where the story ends with a rich series of encounters between Raskol and the poised yet emotion-rich figure of Sonya (the wonderful Tracey Maloney). Through her, Raskol achieves something like salvation. 

The theatricality of all this is heightened by Peter Vitale's jazz score, which weaves sinuously through the action, underscoring and heightening without becoming distracting. This, along with the modern dress approach to the characters and streamlined steel set design puts the emphasis where it should be: on the story and on the acting. This is not an easy play and it may not be to everyone's liking – play-goers expecting a straight-forward take on Dostoevsky's original story are going to be disappointed. But it is rich, satisfying stuff.

The performances are uniformly terrific. The show is anchored by Kris Nelson as Raskol. He prowls the stage, hands twisting, leaping effortlessly between dream and reality, self-absorbed yet very connected to unexpected turns in the side characters. His opposite number is Schuminski, self-contained, deliberate, and probing. Obolensky relies on the rest of the five person ensemble to give us Dostoevsky's huge tapestry and they do so with effortless aplomb. Good acting is always a sign of good writing – and good direction. Particular kudos must go to Michelle Hensley's deft and intelligent staging. She knows when to keep Raskol at the center and when to bring in the other characters, and how to keep the whole thing moving. 

Finally, lest this sound too much like an overly intellectual "variation on" a hoary old classic, it should be noted that this play has been staged, like all of TTT's productions, at a variety of prisons (both men and women's), homeless shelters, chemical dependency facilities, community centers, etc. Reaction to the play has been raucously inspiring. This is rich material and it works. 

So: did he really? Come see the play and decide for yourself. 

Location Info: Minnesota Opera Center
Artist Info: Ten Thousand Things

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