Prince Myshkin (Daniel Kublick) looks at the world with wide-eyed innocence in creative Dostoevsky adaptation (photo by Carl Skutsch)
HERE
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 21, $25, 8:30
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Robert Lyons and HERE artistic director Kristin Marting have previously collaborated on experimental theatrical adaptations of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Demons, called The Possessed, and three short stories by the nineteenth-century Russian writer in The Fever. Now Lyons (text) and Marting (direction and choreography) have turned their attention to Dostoevsky’s 1869 novel, The Idiot, streamlining it to its central love quadrangle. Prince Myshkin (Daniel Kublick) is a wide-eyed Christ-like figure who suffers from epileptic seizures, has an almost blind devotion to the good in life, and is not nearly the simpleton many assume he is. “For some reason, people think of me as an idiot,” he says early on. “At one time I was so ill that I must have seemed like an idiot; but what kind of idiot can I be now, if I am aware that people consider me an idiot?” He is besotted with Nastasya Filipovna (Purva Bedi), a former sex slave and self-proclaimed “student of the apocalypse” who is considering marrying the wealthy Rogozhin (Merlin Whitehawk), a hardy bear of a man with a large appetite for women and drink. Meanwhile, the socialite Aglaya (Lauren Cipoletti) appears to be a much better match for the prince. “The prince fell in love with you the first time you met. He called you: ‘the light,’” Nastasya tells Aglaya. “I also know that you love him. I like to think of you two together as one.” Over the course of seventy-five minutes, the four engage in discussions of love and jealousy, innocence and experience, social position and honor, and the very meaning of existence. “Surely a single moment of such boundless happiness is worth an entire life,” the prince declares.
Prince Myshkin (Daniel Kublick) is torn between two lovers in IDIOT (photo by Carl Skutsch)
Expanded from its original presentation at HERE’s 2014 CULTUREMART festival, Idiot takes place in Nick Benacerraf’s immersive cabaret-style environment, arranged as an X that crosses at the center in a carpeted circle with four tilted mirror/monitors above that show the audience, close-ups of the characters, and the maelstrom that goes on inside the prince’s head when he suffers from his seizures. (The video design is by Ray Sun Ruey-Horng.) The audience, referred to as “guests,” sit in four triangles consisting of chairs arranged relatively randomly. The four paths lead to a stage where Aglaya and Natasya perform Russian karaoke, including a song about escape; a photo-booth room where characters make reality-show-style confessions; a table in a bar where they can down vodka and champagne; and a curtained exit. There is also a DJ playing music by Blue Man Group founding member Larry Heinemann; the period costumes are by Kate Fry. Kublick (Trade Practices, Health Insurance) is adorable as Prince Lev Myshkin, his doe-eyed positivity infectious, beginning when he leads ticket holders to their seats and continuing as he makes direct eye contact with the audience throughout the show; you just want to get up and hug him. Bedi (Assembled Identity, East Is East) has an innate sex appeal as Natasya, imbuing her with a lurking danger, while Cipoletti (Heathers: The Musical, How Alfo Learned to Love) and Whitehawk (Privatopia, Red Wednesday) provide solid support. Of course, Idiot lacks the epic scope of its source material, eschewing social commentary and Russian politics in favor of exploring the nature of love, and it does so with an adroit sense of humor and a playful freshness leading up to its poignant finale.