CHICAGO—The Lookingglass Theatre can take a classic, work-shop it, and recreate it into something that audience members will thereafter treasure—such is the case with their current production, a new adaptation of the Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov by Heidi Stillman.
Stillman also has brilliantly directed this production with the Lookingglass signature “theater without a net” concept of stagecraft. Their work is best described as brilliant and completely flawless.
What we experience in three acts and over three hours is a masterful way of telling a murder and mystery story. We explore a family tearing each other apart because of their contradictory interpretations of what’s right and wrong.
Fyodor Karamazov is a hateful character; he is lecherous, greedy, and a despicable father to his three sons. He vies for the love of the same woman his eldest son loves (who, by the way, loves another brother). He steals money from each son and yet has an inheritance stowed away for each.
