The Kreutzer Sonata review, Arcola Theatre

I first saw the actor Greg Hicks playing Julius Caesar. Caesar is dispatched in the first act but Hicks made him so real I cried when Brutus finished him off. His performance came to mind when the freshly knifed Boris Johnson quoted Caesar and limped away from the Tory leadership battle. Tonight another Tory moment. Hicks took on Tolstoy's flawed hero, Pozdnyshev in The Kreutzer Sonata. Pozdnyshev ponders relations between men and women. They can never be equal, he suggests, as long as women disproportionately invest in clothes and cosmetics to enhance their looks, and men lust after them as playthings. Leopard-print kitten heels came to mind.

Nancy Harris's excellent stage adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1889 short story draws out the conundrums that still dog us. Is love real or is it a choice? Which gender is most disadvantaged in marriage? How is it possible for a man to hate his wife all day, yet lust for her at night?  As Pozdnyshev grapples with the vocabulary, virtues, and violations of commitment, what emerges is his overwhelming love for, and obsession with, the piano-playing mother of his five children. When his wife plays Beethoven's The Kreutzer Sonata with a jaunty, visiting, violinist, he cannot believe something so beautiful can be created without love. Are they sleeping together? Ugly thoughts make tragedy inevitable.

As Pozdnyshev, Hicks is mesmerising. We meet him looking lost in over-large clothes after 12 months behind bars. He is sitting on a bench checking his pockets. As he  relives the timeline of his marriage, moving to the violent end, he seems to grow. In the last minutes his hands are huge against his chest. He is all powerful. Was his wife really seducing the violinist, as he attests, or  was the affair entirely in his head? One is filled with sadness for both to them.

In conclusion:  At 95 minutes, The Kreutzer Sonata feels a tad long, but Hicks with his craggy face and modulated delivery, is compelling. The music is provided by Alice Pinto on piano and Phillip Granell on violin. On the way home, my young companion and I reviewed Pozdnyshev's observations on gender and the form of equality. Is leopard print on a Prime Minister an enhancement or a distraction?

References
Arcola Theatre, The Kreutzer Sonata, Tickets


Arcola Theate, Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL     Run ends 23 July