CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
by Marilyn Campbell & Curt Columbus from the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes
January 28-February 21, 2027
This taut, award-winning adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s literary masterpiece delves into the mind of troubled student Raskolnikov – emboldened to commit a horrible crime, believing himself superior and above the law. Campbell and Columbus force us to have a “conversation on the nature of evil” and the search for redemption – if it is even possible. Told by three actors in a thrilling 90 minutes, the audience becomes another character in this psychological and spiritual journey which seeks to unveil hidden dimensions of the human condition.
“REMARKABLY ABSORBING” – The New York Times
“…this adaptation…reminds us how THRILLING a classic can be” – AISLE SAY Chicago
“STUNNINGLY LEAN, TAUT AND EMOTIONALLY SEARING” – Chicago Sun-Times
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Marilyn Campbell is a published playwright, award-winning actress, and independent producer. Her co-adaptation with Curt Columbus of Crime and Punishment garnered a 2003 Chicago Jefferson Award, a 2009 L.A. Backstage Garland Award, and a 2009 nomination from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle for Best New Adaptation. Crime and Punishment has been performed in more than 40 theaters across the United States. Campbell’s other full-length plays include the award-winning My Own Stranger, a co-adaptation based on the writings of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton; The Beats, based on the writings of the 1950’s beat poets, which Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times called “rousing, thought-provoking, and verbally brilliant”; and The Gospel According to Mark Twain, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland. Campbell is currently writing a new play, commissioned by Writers’ Theatre and based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, entitled The Monster’s Lullaby. In addition to playwriting, Campbell was the host of a radio show called “The Feminist Lens” which airs on WFMT Chicago: https://www.marilynrcampbell.com/
Curt Columbus became Trinity Repertory Company’s fifth artistic director in January 2006 – https://www.trinityrep.com/. He is also the artistic director of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA programs in Acting and Directing. His directing credits for Trinity Rep include POTUS, Becky Nurse of Salem, Sweeney Todd, Tiny Beautiful Things, Macbeth, Ragtime, Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Middletown, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Merchant of Venice, His Girl Friday, Camelot, Cabaret, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Cherry Orchard, and the world premieres of The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allen Poe and Social Creatures. Trinity Rep has been home to the world premieres of three of his plays, Paris by Night, The Dreams of Antigone, and Sparrow Grass, and produced his translations of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard and Ivanov, as well as Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear and Lope de Vega’s Like Sheep to Water (Fuente Ovejuna). Curt’s adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (with Marilyn Campbell) has won awards and accolades around the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. His translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, developed at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, is published by Dramatists Play Service, as is Sparrow Grass and his translations of Chekhov’s Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, and Ivanov.
