Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - E-Book

Anna Karenina E-Book

Leo Tolstoy

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Beschreibung

'All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Across the vast panorama of nineteenth-century Russia, everyone is searching for answers in a society on the brink of collapse. Anna Karenina is risking a dangerous love affair with the magnetic Count Vronsky. Levin is wrestling with his thwarted devotion to Kitty. Kitty's been left broken-hearted by Vronsky, and her sister Dolly struggles to reconcile the burdens of repeated childbearing with her husband's continual philandering. Phillip Breen's witty and sensual stage adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece takes us into the hearts and minds of its conflicted, very human characters, and offers a surprisingly funny and deeply moving portrait of infidelity, passion and the search for fulfilment. It was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025, directed by Breen and starring Natalie Dormer in the title role.

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Seitenzahl: 138

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

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Leo Tolstoy

ANNA KARENINA

adapted for the stage by

Phillip Breen

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Epigraph

Characters

Anna Karenina

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

This adaptation of Anna Karenina was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre on 7 June 2025. The cast was as follows:

ANNA

Natalie Dormer

KARENIN

Tomiwa Edun

SERYOZHA

Jacob Isaacs, Layla Owens

LEVIN

David Oakes

STIVA

Jonnie Broadbent

DOLLY

Naomi Sheldon

KITTY

Shalisha James-Davis

VRONSKY

Seamus Dillane

NIKOLAI

Ivan Ivashkin

THE PRINCESS SHCHERBATSKYA

Marcia Lecky

THE PRINCE SHCHERBATSKY

John Ramm

COUNTESS VRONSKAYA

Donna Berlin

MARYA

Florence Dobson

AGAFYA

Anne Lacey

PETKA

Les Dennis

TITUS

Riad Richie

COUNTESS LYDIA

Sandy Foster

DOLLY AND STIVA’S CHILDREN

Darcey Cooper, Rosie Cooper, Will Metcalfe, Dylan Paige

All other parts played by members of the company.

MUSICIANS

Musical Director/Piano/Accordion

Kotaro Hata

Violin/Viola

Akillo Ishikawa

Bass

Shin Kawahara

Director

Phillip Breen

Set Designer

Max Jones

Costume Designer

Ruth Hall

Lighting Designer

Anna Watson

Composer

Paddy Cunneen

Sound Designer

Dyfan Jones

Movement Director

Ayse Tashkiran

Fight Director

Renny Krupinski

Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Designer

Susanna Peretz

Casting Director

Helena Palmer CDG

Voice and Dialect Coach

Ben Furey

Assistant Director

Becca Chadder

Production Manager

Kate West

Costume Supervisor

Josie Thomas

Props Supervisor

Kate Margretts

Company Stage Manager

Janet Gautrey

Deputy Stage Manager

Klare Rogers

Assistant Stage Managers

Elle Roberts Charlie Henley-Castleden

Interpreter

Mayuko Kawai

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank for their help (in no particular order):

My friend Justin Audibert, Natalie Dormer, Kathy Bourne and the whole Chichester team, Maki Kato, Hiroko Kaneko, Hana Ishida and everyone at Theatre Cocoon past and present, Kiuchi Hiromasu, Rie Miyazawa, Jiro Katsushiba and the whole Tokyo cast and crew, Junpei and the gang, Yuma Fukami and family, my mother and sisters, Vicky and Laura, Helena Palmer CDG, Freddie Lynch, Mayuko Kawai, Rosamund Bartlett, Prof. Carol Chillington Rutter, Tim Key, Nicky Wingfield, Emma Hands, Dmitrii Bogachev and family, Momoko Aida, Alan and Mary Cox, Eleanor Lloyd OBE, Howard Gooding, Matt Applewhite and everyone at Nick Hern Books.

The A Team: Max Jones, Ruth Hall and Paddy Cunneen for all our adventures.

Special thanks to Charles Holloway OBE for making it possible to bring the Japanese musicians to the UK. Your ongoing support means the world.

And my best one, Eva Rice: spot on as usual.

P.B.

Dedicated to my friend Yoko Tokita

Without whom these dreams would not be possible

‘We have a perfect name for fantasy, realised. That is “nightmare”.’

Slavoj Žižek

Characters

ANNA, late twenties/early thirties

KARENIN, her husband, late thirties

SERYOZHA, their son, eight

LEVIN, a landowner and farmer, thirties

STIVA, Anna’s brother, late thirties

DOLLY, married to Stiva, sister to Kitty, thirties

GRISHA, Stiva and Dolly’s child

TANYA, Stiva and Dolly’s child

KITTY, sister to Dolly, eighteen

PRINCESS SHCHERBATSKYA, Dolly and Kitty’s mother,late fifties

PRINCE SHCHERBATSKY, Dolly and Kitty’s father, sixties

VRONSKY, a soldier, twenty-five

COUNTESS VRONSKAYA, Vronsky’s mother, fifties

NIKOLAI, revolutionary, Levin’s brother, thirties

MARYA, fellow revolutionary and friend to Nikolai, twenties

AGAFYA, housekeeper and former nanny to Levin, lateseventies

PETKA, Levin’s land steward, sixties

COUNTESS LYDIA, a Christian and admirer of Karenin’s,forties

PRINCESS BETSY, a friend of Anna’s

AMBASSADOR’S WIFE, a guest of Betsy’s

AMBASSADOR, a guest of Betsy’s

TITUS, a muzhik

OLD MAN, a muzhik

TUROVTSYN, a guest of the Oblonskys

DOCTOR, attending Anna

NURSE, attending Anna

PRIEST, at Kitty and Levin’s wedding

NANNY, to Seryozha

MIDWIFE, attending Kitty

DOCTOR, attending Kitty

FLOWER-SELLER

A CHORUS

And WAITERS, a GUARD, WORKERS, a DIRIGEUR,an OLDER MAN, a YOUNG MAN, MEN AT HORSE RACE, WOMAN DRESSED AS EVE, a YOUNG MAID, SERVANTS, a PRIEST, a FOOTMAN

Note on Play

The play takes place over three years in numerous locations around Russia in the late 1870s.

Time jumps forward when a new year and season is denoted.

Scenes and images overlap with one another, like in a dream.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so maydiffer slightly from the play as performed.

ACT ONE

1.

St Petersburg. Winter. Year One. The nursery at the Kareninhouse. Enter ANNA in her coat, she has just returned home.She regards this familiar space mysteriously, as if seeing it forthe first time. An object gets her attention on the floor centre-stage. A new toy train. She bends down, picks it up and studiesit for a second. Enter SERYOZHA, her young son, followed byhis father, KARENIN . The boy stops in his tracks when he seeshis mother. He looks between his mother and his father, sensingan atmosphere. SERYOZHA snatches the train from his mother.The nursery becomes a scene from ANNA ’s nightmares. Trainsscream. Women scream.

2.

Moscow. One week earlier. STIVA is asleep on a divan fullyclothed holding a large pear. He wakes with a start from hisdream; he beholds his furious, tear-stained wife, DOLLY.She holds an expensive vase.

STIVA. Is this a dream?

DOLLY. No

STIVA. This is happening?

DOLLY. Yes

STIVA. Is that the antique French vase Maman bought us for our anniversary?

DOLLY. Yes

STIVA. Oh God

DOLLY smashes the vase and explodes into a rage.

Dolly!

Darling!

Dol–

What’s all this?

Eh?

DOLLY. WHAT’S ALL THIS?!

GET UP, YOU BASTARD!

WE’RE EXPECTING VISITORS!

ANNA IS COMING TODAY!

STIVA. Yes yes it’s terrible!

I said all this last night!

DOLLY. I always knew you were an animal!

I cannot wait to tell Anna!

I cannot wait to tell your sister what you have done!

STIVA. Yes I know

Terrible

DOLLY. I KNOW!

You don’t want me!

You never want to TOUCH me

STIVA. I do

Definitely

DOLLY. YOU DON’T!

I DISGUST YOU!

SEVEN CHILDREN DOWN!

FIVE LIVING!

YOU’VE WRECKED MY BODY WITH YOUR SCUMBAG LUST!

MY BODY SAGS AND MY HAIR’S THINNED AND IT’S PROBABLY FITTING THAT MY FINGERS ARE SO BONY THAT THE WEDDING RING IS SLIPPING OFF AND NOW YOU TOSS MY LIFELESS CARCASS TO ONE SIDE TO FEAST ON THE GOVERNESS!

STIVA. It was hardly a a a feast

DOLLY. YOU WILL NEVER WANT ME!

AND THIS WILL ONLY EVER BE LIES!

STIVA. I absolutely do want you for sure

DOLLY. I REPULSE YOU!

STIVA. You don’t repulse me

You’re actually gorgeous

DOLLY (reading from a letter). ‘Ma chère, your body has bewitched me, I need to be between your thighs and feel your soft, perfect breasts in my poor, rough hands…’

STIVA. You’ve got to look at the context

DOLLY. Y. A. M.

What does that mean?

Eh?

Y-A-M?!

Answer me!

STIVA (trying not to say ‘You are mine’). Ya-a-a

DOLLY. You

Are

STIVA. Mmmah

I don’t remember

He makes a feeble effort to grab the letter.

DOLLY. Don’t you touch me!

STIVA. I got you a pear

Look

It’s a beauty

She screams and throws the pear at him.

Forget the pear

Literally forget it

One time!

I mean I barely

She barely touched

It meant nothing

It was barely a thing

DOLLY. LIAR!

Don’t talk to me about what you got up to with that WHORE!

STIVA. One moment!

One silly action!

Can’t nine years of a life together atone for one stupid

DOLLY. Ha!

STIVA. It’s a nice life

DOLLY. We’re broke!

STIVA. What about the children

DOLLY. How dare you!

They’re lost to you now!

STIVA. Don’t say that!

DOLLY. She’s probably pregnant!

STIVA. I doubt it

It suddenly occurs to him that she might be. He panics.

Is she?

DOLLY. HAHAHAHA!

STIVA. What’s funny?

DOLLY. Will she get a wet nurse?

The wet nurse my desiccated tits are denied?!

STIVA. Darling

If that’s what you want, you just say the

DOLLY. GET OUT!

He quickly goes to leave.

Where the HELL do you think you’re going?

STIVA. You said

DOLLY. GET BACK HERE!

STIVA. It’s true that it’s not nice that she used to be a governess in our house

That’s low that’s just banal I’m not that

I didn’t think I was that man turns out I am that man and and I’m going through a lot right now and

DOLLY. Don’t you DARE!

STIVA. Absolutely nothing happened while she worked here

I’m not an animal

Oh God

What to do?

I’m guilty!

Punish me

Please

DOLLY. GET OUT!

STIVA. Okay

DOLLY. No!

We’re leaving

STIVA. Not the children

He starts to sob. The CHILDREN are crying in the nextroom. One puts their head round the door.

NOT NOW, GRISHA!

GRISHA leaves, sobbing.

DOLLY. What’s best for them?

Leaving their father?

Or staying with their depraved father?

How can we live together in this FILTH?

TELL ME!

Is it possible?

STIVA. I’m guilty

Don’t punish the children

Punish me

I deserve it

Tell me what to do

I’ll do anything

I’m guilty

Forgive me

I’ll sell the forest

She laughs bitterly.

DOLLY. IT’S MY FOREST!

IT’S MY INHERITANCE!

STIVA. Be that as it may

I’ll buy you nice things

I’ll buy a coat for little Grisha

Talk to Anna

She knows everything

Let it be like it was before

When we were happy

Aren’t we happy?

DOLLY. Happy?

STIVA. Just like any other happy family

DOLLY. All happy families are alike

Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

The scream of a train.

3.

A flash of ANNA in a railway carriage hurtling to Moscow.

4.

Moscow. A flashy restaurant. A WAITER takes an order from STIVA, who is sat with LEVIN.

STIVA. Oysters

WAITER. Ostend Flensburg or Utrecht?

STIVA. A dozen of each

Bread and parmesan cheese

A plate of the kasha à la Russe

Beef soup a large tureen

The turbot with Sauce Beaumarchais poularde a l’estragonmacedonie de fruits

And champagne the cachet blanc

WAITER. Very good, your excellency

The WAITER goes to leave. He is called back.

STIVA. And a bottle of the classic Chablis

Just for the table

The thing is, Levin, I’m flat broke

And Dolly’s gone full ‘final scene Greek Tragedy’ on me

Over the governess

And what a governess!

So young so pretty I actually could have loved her

But while she was in the house I didn’t allow myself to –

(Gestures vaguely.)

Nothing happened

Not like

I’m not one of your farm animals

Oysters arrive. STIVA greedily tucks in. Another WAITER brings champagne.

You don’t like oysters?

Concentrate!

LEVIN. I can’t concentrate

I don’t like all

He gestures around him.

This

A champagne cork pops.

I mean

Look at your nails

STIVA. My nails?

LEVIN. In the country we keep our hands ready for work You grow your nails long and stick on saucers instead of cufflinks

STIVA (mouthful of oyster). I’m not in the country

LEVIN. You’re eating oysters two thousand miles from the sea

STIVA. Praise be to our modern railway!

LEVIN. In the country we eat what we slaughter quickly to get on with what we have to do

Here we are trying our best not to be full for as long as possible

STIVA. Surely the point of civilisation is to make everything as enjoyable as possible?

LEVIN. If that’s the point of civilisation I’d rather be wild I’m wild to even be in Moscow

STIVA. You’re wild alright

Maman asked me why you disappeared so suddenly last time

LEVIN. The princess definitely doesn’t want to see me

It’s hopeless

And she won’t want to see you when Dolly tells her what you’ve done

STIVA. Dolly won’t want to upset her mother she’s decent like that

But you’re coming with me to the Shcherbatskys’ tonight?

LEVIN. Uh

STIVA laughs.

What?

STIVA. Kitty

You’re going to…?

We’d be brothers-in-law

How glorious!

It’s all ahead of you

LEVIN. And it’s all behind you?

STIVA. Not behind exactly

Look I love Dolly but she’s getting on

LEVIN. She’s younger than you

STIVA. And I think she’s pregnant

LEVIN. Again?

STIVA. Look

All I’m saying is that you have the future with Kitty

And I the present with Dolly and

LEVIN. And?

STIVA. A bit of this and a bit of that

But I don’t want to talk about me

LEVIN. What if I’m refused?

STIVA. Girls love proposals

Anyway Dolly has spoken to Kitty

LEVIN. And?

STIVA. She’s a remarkable woman my wife

She has great foresight when it comes to matrimony

LEVIN. What did she say?

STIVA. You’ll tell a champion horse by his blah-di-blah thighs

And a young man in love by his sad little eyes

LEVIN. This is life and death for me

KITTY skates quickly, elegantly past the table.

KITTY. Kostya!

LEVIN. Kitty!

KITTY. The ice is excellent put your skates on!

5.

Moscow. Winter. Year One. A few months ago. A frozen lake. KITTY skates towards LEVIN . A handkerchief falls from hermuff. LEVIN picks it up.

KITTY. Thank you

Have you been here long?

LEVIN. No I came yesterday

Um

Today I mean

I’m here to see my brother Nikolai

And

Other things

KITTY. You’re not

LEVIN. I didn’t pack any skates

Um

KITTY. Is it boring in the country?

LEVIN. No

I’m very busy

I didn’t know you skated

And so well

KITTY. There’s a rumour that you’re an excellent skater

LEVIN. I used to be a very passionate skater

But I couldn’t achieve perfection so I

KITTY. It seems you do everything passionately

Have you come for long?

LEVIN. I don’t know

KITTY. Why don’t you know?

LEVIN. Because that depends on you

KITTY smiles and skates off. LEVIN is furious with himself.He attempts to move and slips over.

6.

Moscow. Winter. Year One. Back in the present moment. A partyat the Shcherbatsky house. STIVA hauls LEVIN up from theice. STIVA takes a bowl of champagne from a passing tray. VRONSKY pays court to KITTY.

STIVA. You have a rival

LEVIN. Dozens I imagine

STIVA. Do you know Vronsky?

LEVIN. Why should I?

STIVA. He’s a… count

I got to know him in Tver during my military service

Good bloke

An Imperial aide-de-camp with big connections

Maman is delighted

LEVIN goes to leave.

Wait!

This is why you should resolve the matter now

In another part of the party, the PRINCE and PRINCESS talk aside about LEVIN.

PRINCESS. There’s no comparison

He’s so awkward

No manners

Look at him

He’s too busy with cattle and peasants and his awful brother

He returns again and again to the house of an unmarried woman

And has never explained himself

PRINCE. He has serious intentions

PRINCESS. And visiting with Stiva?

While Dolly’s preparing to leave with the children

What if Vronsky loses patience?

PRINCE. He’s a show pony

Only in it for his own amusement

They make boys like that by machine in Petersburg and turn them out at two kopecks a yard

PRINCESS. Were she to squander a suitor like Vronsky

Everybody will be talking and with good reason

PRINCE. She likes Levin

PRINCESS. I will not be persuaded that the young must now settle their own fate

In the same way that I will not be persuaded that the best toy for a five-year-old is a loaded pistol

The focus shifts elsewhere. To the COUNTESS LYDIA and LEVIN.

LYDIA. Levin!

I see you’ve returned to our depraved Babylon

Has Babylon become better or have you become worse?

LEVIN. My words must have a strong effect on you

Since you remember them with such clarity

LYDIA. Oh absolutely!

I’m gripped by your conversation

You must turn your thrilling story about your annual grain targets into a stage play so the whole of Moscow can enjoy it

The focus is now on KITTY and the PRINCESS.

PRINCESS. My only salvation is that he’s so unattractive you can’t have fallen in love with him

KITTY. He’s not unattractive

Maman, can we please not discuss

PRINCESS. I only want to say

KITTY. Please, Maman

PRINCESS. I only want to say that having given hopes to Count Vronsky

KITTY. Maman, it’s too awful, please don’t speak of it!

PRINCESS. I won’t

But darling

KITTY (tears forming in her eyes).Maman!

KITTY joins the party. The focus shifts. VRONSKY and LEVIN look at one another.

LYDIA. Vronsky!

May I introduce you to Konstantin Dmitrich Levin?

VRONSKY. I believe I was due to have dined with you earlier this winter

But you’d left unexpectedly for the country

LYDIA. He says he can never wait to escape this Sodom and Gomorrah on the Moscow river

LEVIN. My words must have a strong effect on you since you remember them with such clarity

LYDIA. Is there an echo?

LYDIA laughs, LEVIN is embarrassed.

VRONSKY. I suppose your winters must be quite boring

LEVIN. Only if you’re bored with yourself

Another focus shift.

PRINCESS (in an intense sotto voce). The governess, Stiva!

The governess?!



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