Adultery, passion, and suicide: they may be sub-currents running under many a Christmas gathering, but they rarely make their way onto stages at this time of the year. More power to the Gate theatre for bucking the panto convention and giving theatregoers some serious fare this holiday season.
Michael Barker-Caven has directed Helen Edmundson's acclaimed adaptation before; he now takes full advantage of the Gate's financial and physical resources to create a lavish and engaging spectacle that is, most importantly, beautifully cast in its central roles.
Paris Jefferson, after some emotional wobbles early on, is mesmeric most of the time and infuriating at just the right moments as the titular adultress. The lynchpin performance is from Peter Gowen as the awkward landowner Levin, who brings enormous humanity to the character's personal growth and self-doubt, and even manages to make the passages about his early socialist farming experiments interesting.
The masterstroke of Edmundson's version is to use Anna and Levin as narrators, setting scenes in motion by asking each other "Where are you now?" a question with appropriately metaphysical overtones.
Simon Higlett's concave floor set helps create differentiated playing areas for the moments when scenes happen simultaneously and overlap. Barker-Caven's direction has a brisk elegance that keeps things engaging, despite the three-hour running time.
This kind of shared experience storytelling theatre may not be innovative, but it still feels fresh on naturalism-steeped Irish stages, and here is used beautifully to put across an epic evening's entertainment.
· Until February 3. Box office: (353) 1-874 4045.
