Q & A: An Interview with Michael Evan Haney

The following is an interview with the director of Crime and Punishment (and Playhouse Associate Artistic Director) Michael Evan Haney.

Describe this play to a Dostoevsky novice.

It’s a great Russian novel, but it’s also a wonderful story. It concerns a young student who’s dropped out of school — Raskolnikov. He’s planned, committed and is suffering for a murder of an old pawnbroker woman.

There are two main adversaries that he has (or allies, in a strange way). One is the police inspector, Porfiry, who reminds me a little bit of Columbo. He suspects that Raskolnikov is the murderer, but doesn’t come right out and accuse him. He plays on his guilt to get Raskolnikov to confess.

The other main character in the show is Sonia, a very young woman who has had to become a prostitute to support her young brothers and sisters who are living in abject poverty. She’s the spiritual heart of the play. Porfiry is the intellect of the play and they’re both working on Raskolnikov to get him to confess his sins for different reasons — obviously Porfiry to solve the case and Sonia to save his soul.

How did the adapters transform a 700-page novel into a 90-minute play?

Very well, I’d say. The two adapters — Curt Columbus and Marilyn Campbell — have really streamlined the novel. The novel probably has over 20 main characters in it. They’ve   really boiled it down to the main action that Dostoevsky was concerned with in the writing — the power of spirituality in the world and how that affects a human being.

There’s a wonderful line that Raskolnikov says to Sonia when she’s asking him why he killed the old lady. He keeps changing his answers and finally he says, “I didn’t kill her; I killed myself, didn’t I?” I think that’s what the playwrights really concentrated on — the whole mental anguish and spiritual search that Raskolnikov has for God, for redemption, for atonement.

What drew you to directing this production?

When I was in college, I was not only into theatre, but I was also a Russian history major. I was very interested in Russian history and especially Zarist history, so I was very attracted to the idea of somebody trying to make a play out of this, and then when I found out that it’s 90 minutes long, I said “How in the world could they do this?” I finished it, and I had even a stronger feeling than I did in reading the novel.

I think these two adapters have captured an essence of what Dostoevsky was trying to deal with in the human condition and they’ve been able to dramatize it. I’m very excited about working on that and trying to capture what they put on paper to make it come alive.

What is the look of the production?

It’s very simple. Kevin Rigdon is the scenic and lighting designer with whom I’ve worked with several times (Hiding Behind Comets, A Picasso and last year’s Reckless).

The set is basically going to be a blank stage with a chair and a table that serve as Porfiry’s office, as Raskolnikov’s room and as Sonia’s apartment. They’re going to be playing against the frame of a Greek or Russian Orthodox icon — very elaborate, inlaid with jewels — with the picture of Christ gone from it and going back into a black void.

We’re going to use a doughnut turntable in the floor so that when Raskolnikov is dreaming, when he’s not really in the reality of being interrogated or with Sonia, the characters will come and go as if sort of magically and whirling around him. We probably won’t use that turntable a whole lot, but when we need it, it will be very effective.

What are some of the elements that come into play when you’re one of the first to stage a new production?

I feel like I’ve been sort of on the fringe of the creative process of this being written without much input into it, but I keep getting different versions of the play so I have to keep my mind open for all the changes. They’ve refined it a little bit, too, which I think is good. I think they’ve made it better and better and better. They’re taking stuff away from it instead of adding a lot into it.