IF Hercules had had an eighth labour, only the cruellest god might have suggested an adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace. The task fell instead to Helen Edmundson for Shared Experience. War and Peace, the epic work of literature, is now War and Peace, the four-and-a-half hour stage play.
Surprisingly time is not an issue. The production seems to have left out so much of the book that what is left can truly be regarded as the highlights. The play gives an insight into the opulence and brutality of Russia's affluent classes as one might have expected - but comedy? Unexpectedly the auditorium reverberated modestly at witty and well-delivered lines it might be hard to locate in the book - and that is an important point. Play and book are distinct entities - the play more about passion and love, lacking the gravity and philosophy of the book.
The ensemble rose to the huge challenge admirably, particularly Ronan Vibert as Andrei Bolonsky. However, as Edmundson admits, in the book there are a number of protaganists, and in adapting for the stage she has had to ignore the finer details of some.
It is still a remarkable and significant piece of adaptation and as theatre it is good if not brilliant or mouldbreaking. Rather, this is a populist treatment of Tolstoy - and I find it remarkable enough to be writing the words ``populist'' and ``Tolstoy'' in the same sentence.
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