Anna Karenina

Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Actors Co-op Theatre Company
Through March 17

Artistic ambition should always be encouraged. If artists never attempt greatness, if they never try working on a bigger canvas, we wouldn’t have works like Angels in America or The Iceman Cometh — plays that demonstrate how amazing theatre can be. On the other hand, while ambitious attempts are always laudable, their results aren’t always successful. Such is the case with the Actors Co-op production of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, in which an overly condensed adaptation and a couple of low-key performances keep the show from its great potential.

In late 19^th century Russia, Anna (Eva Abramian) is unhappily married to senior government official Alexei (Bruce Ladd). Rich landowner Constantine (Joseph Barone) is smitten with young Kitty (Ivy Beech), and intends to propose marriage to her. However, both Anna and Kitty have fallen for the dashing army officer Count Vronsky (Garrett Botts), an ill-fated infatuation that will have long-lasting consequences for both women and everyone around them.

Abramian (along with Barone) is onstage almost every moment of this nearly three-hour show and deserves credit for taking on such a challenging role. But although she plays the grief and anger of the final act well, her performance in the first act comes off as oddly muted, especially for a character driven by strong emotion. Barone brings great energy and skill to the earnest Constantine, and Beech, who delivers a moving performance as Kitty, is terrific. Ladd is effectively kind or cruel (depending on the moment) as unloved husband Alexei, but unfortunately Botts’s performance is tepid and he doesn’t entirely register as love vortex Vronsky. Lauren Thompson, Deborah Marlowe and Michael Worden are all quite good in multiple roles.

In many ways, Heather Chesley’s direction is impressive, whether she’s implementing swift pacing or imaginative staging (such as a horse race divided into four parts of the stage or a parade of peasants circling the performing area as they scythe down the harvest). But the absence of passion in the play’s main romantic relationship prevents it from ever catching fire in the way it should, and makes the tragedy less involving.

Helen Edmundson’s adaptation is problematic. It sets the show in a sort of afterlife, in which Anna and Constantine compare their stories, which are drawn from various scenes in the book in a way which is sometimes chronologically confusing (having several actors in multiple roles doesn’t help). I understand this decision: the idea is to convey the story in a symbolic rather than realistic way. After all, the novel itself is an eight-hundred-page book with many locations, and most theatre companies can’t afford ten or twenty separate sets. But ultimately this approach makes everything feel somewhat nebulous and disconnected. On top of that (again due to the novel’s great length), Edmundson eliminates a lot of connective scenes and focuses mainly on dramatic turns in the plot — which speeds up the action to the point where the characters’ motivations often seem sudden and arbitrary.

There’s a lot of good work in this production, and that’s to be applauded. Regrettably, the elements that don’t quite come together keep this Anna Karenina from being completely successful.

Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m.; through Mar. 17. www.ActorsCo-op.org. Running time: approximately two hours and 40 minutes, with one intermission.