Jeremy Bode Photo courtesy of Open Window Theatre

This is weighty stuff, delivered by Dostoevsky in a gripping narrative, written soon after returning from five years of exile in Siberia for sedition, on charges of reading and circulating papers critical of Russian government and religion. Open Window Theatre is launching its 2025-2026 season with Crime and Punishment, with an adaptation by Scottish playwright Chris Hannan, published in 2013. Hannan does a masterful job with this ambitious undertaking, filtering the narrative into three hours (less a fifteen-minute intermission), with all of the novel's major plot thrusts intact, and the questions it raises clearly expressed and thoughtfully considered.

Director Joe Hendren lifts up Dostoevsky's genius and Hannan's handiwork with a phenomenal production, one that is moving, perplexing and inspiring, in keeping with the source material. The language is crisp, and the cross-cutting from one scene to the next is fluid, keeping the audience in its grip from the opening scene, in which the struggling student Raskolnikov wrestles with his speculation on the morality of murder, on to the redemptive conclusion, by which time Raskolnikov has worked his way through a labyrinth of psychological intrigue to arrive at a state of happiness.

Raskolnikov, a classic anti-hero, is an appealing but deeply flawed character who draws us in with the force of a tornado. He struggles with poverty as a law student in St. Petersburg, where he is behind on rent for a small garret room and has too little to eat. He also struggles to prove his conviction that he is one of those extraordinary individuals for whom laws are meant to be broken. He rejects the faith in which he was raised, believing that man, and not a higher power, determines right and wrong. Murder, he asserts, is morally permissible if it serves a higher purpose. Therefore, using a reductionist logic, by murdering to achieve a higher purpose, he will prove his exceptionality.

His chosen victim is an elderly pawnbroker with whom he has had to barter away personal effects to secure a pittance of cash. To murder and steal from such a person will release him from the poverty he deeply resents. He is outraged to learn that his sister, Dunya, is about to marry a well-off man she does not love and who holds her in disdain. She argues that marriage is the only means for a young woman without wealth to find a secure place in the world. This drives Raskolnikov to action, to serve not only his own needs, but to liberate his sister from a life of certain misery.

Moral or not, Raskolnikov is wracked by uncertainty and fear of discovery that are ruinous to both his physical and emotional health as he surges through the days. He is nursed to health by his faithful friend, Razumkhin, whose ability to find joy in life stands in marked contrast to Raskolnikov. He engages in a nerve-rattling game of cat and mouse with police inspector Porfiry, in charge of investigating the pawnbroker's murder. He frees Dunya of her fiancé, but without knowing what will lie ahead for her.

He meets the lovely Sonya, who resorts to prostitution to support herself, her drunkard father, and her consumptive stepmother. She professes to Raskolnikov, the avowed atheist who asserts that the universe is amoral, that her spirits are kept aloft by her devotion to the Christian gospel, which he finds laughable. Raskolnikov, a self-styled extraordinary man, is ravaged by his efforts to be extraordinary until Sonya cries out in heartfelt pity, "What have you done to yourself? No one is more unhappy than you."

The production has been given a muscular staging, with Open Window's deep stage foreshortened, thus bringing the action closer to the audience. An effectively conceived set designed by Robin McIntyre depicts Raskolnikov's lodgings and the stockbroker's shop with precision, with more stylized set pieces evoking the streets, police station, taverns, and cemetery, all public places in which Raskolnikov seeks glory while unraveling in despair. A. Emily Heaney's costumes are superlative and serve well to differentiate the multiple characters portrayed by most of the production's actors. Sue Berger's lighting design projects the shifts between lightness and darkness within the narrative, and Forest Godfrey's sound design enhances the production with the ambient sounds of a bustling city.

The cast is exceptional, first and foremost being Jeremy Bode and his monumental performance as Raskolnikov. He conveys Raskolnikov's untethered mix of arrogance, sullenness, and his misguided efforts to believe in himself, that lead to his psychic meltdown, while bringing conviction to the redemptive arc of his life's arduous journey. I will be keeping my eyes open for more of this young actor's work on local stages.

Sarah Dickson is exquisite as Sonya, unshaken by the turns her life takes, depicting a deep understanding of love and grounded by a faith that sees beyond the woes of the temporal world. Peter Colburn is compelling as the shrewd police inspector Porfiry and comically engaging as Sonya's drunkard father, while Meg Grundy does remarkable work as Sonya's melodramatically inclined stepmother, Raskolnikov's jittery mother, and the crafty pawnbroker. Dominic Shira is endearing as Razumikhin, the epitome of a good-hearted and devoted friend. Fjaere Harder conveys Dunya's stoic embrace of harsh reality by accepting her lot in life, and Eric Knutson is convincing as Dunya's smarmy would-be fiancé.

For Open Window, a small company based in a suburban strip mall, to attempt such an ambitious offering as Crime and Punishment is impressive enough, but to have achieved such soaring success in every facet of the production, while introducing Chris Hannan's powerful adaption of Dostoevsky's work to our theatre community, is cause for celebration, and for securing tickets to see this striking work, sure to be remembered as one of the highlights of the theater season.

Crime and Punishment runs through October 26, 2025, at Open Window Theatre, 5300 S Robert Trail, Inver Grove Heights MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-615-1515 or visit openwindowtheatre.org.

Playwright: Adapted by Chris Hannan from the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Director: Joe Hendren; Set Design: Robin McIntyre; Costume Design: A. Emily Heaney; Lighting Design: Sue Berger; Sound Design: Forest Godfrey; Props Design: Nate Farley; Assistant Lighting and Sound Design: Madison Denherder; Stage Manager: Kendra Kispert; Assistant Stage Manager: Stephanie Mogren.

Cast: Jeremy Bode (Raskolnikov), Peter Colburn (Porfiry/Marmeladov/ensemble), Sarah Dickson (Sonya), Meg Grundy (Alyona/Darya/Pulkeria/Katerina/ensemble), Fjaere Harder (Dunya/Lizaveta/ensemble), Eric Knutson (Luzhin/Koch/ensemble), Lindsey Oetken (Nastasya/Amalia/ensemble), Michael Quadrozzi (Lebezyatnikov/ensemble), Brandt Roberts (Ilya /ensemble), Dominic Schiro (Razumikhin/ensemble).