Contemporary British-American Stage and Cinema Adaptations of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground

About the author:

Olga Yu. Panova, Doctor Hab. in Philology, Professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1/51, GSP-1, 119991 Moscow, Russia; Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2520-120X 

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Abstract:

Despite the fact that Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground (1864) is not an easy text for creative transmedia projects there appeared several adaptations in 1990s–2010s in the English-speaking countries. The paper compares two stage adaptations — the British (dir. G. Garutti, 2014) and the American one (Yale Repertory Theatre, dir. Robert Woodruff, 2009) and considers the unique experience of screening Dostoevsky’s novella — Gary Walkow’s indie film (Walkow-Gruber Pictures & Renegade Film Production, 1995): it was highly appreciated by the critics and got several awards at film festivals. Another breakthrough work was J. Symonds’ and Pierce Wilcox’s opera staged in Sydney Chamber Opera by Netta Yashchin (2011) and five years later by Patrick Nolan (2016) who won international acclaim with his 1980’s Russian update.