THE STORY: Using the characters and events of The Brothers Karamazov as a springboard, the play becomes a lampoon not only of Dostoyevsky but of western culture and literature in general. Dotted with literary allusions and intellectual jibes, it pokes fun at figures ranging from Ernest Hemingway and L. Frank Baum on to Leo Tolstoy, as it turns the saga of the ill-fated Karamazov brothers topsy-turvy. The narrator of the proceedings is the famed translator, Constance Garnett, who struggles to keep the wild goings-on in perspective and under control, and, in the end, settles for conjugating the verb “Karamazov” —which, under the circumstances, makes more sense than one might suspect.
Created by two of our theatre’s most original writers, this adaptation is an antic, sometimes outrageous, yet consistently amusing “send-up” of Dostoyevsky’s classic novel.
“…moments of comic inspiration…I was impressed with their wit as well as their scholarship.” —The New York Times.
“…something of a screwball serenade.” —Variety.
