Helen Edmundson’s celebrated and ‘exemplary’ (The Times) adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s enduring classic is a vibrant and deeply moving meditation on the nature of love.
Anna is beautiful and admired but empty – until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life – and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.
Helen Edmundson’s stage adaptation of Anna Karenina was first performed by Shared Experience at the Theatre Royal, Winchester, in January 1992 at the start of a nationwide tour. The production went on to win the Time Out Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event of 1992.
This edition of the play was published alongside a revival at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2011.
‘Theatre this engrossing is rare’
— Time Out
‘The aim is not to report the novel but to recreate it as a piece of theatre… a dramatisation which is symbolically accurate as well as theatrically compelling’
— Guardian
Time Out Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event
