What you need to know
A new stage adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground has opened at the Print Room, London. The production was developed in Paris earlier this year by Harry Lloyd (best known as the dastardly Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones) and Gerald Garutti.
Lloyd performs the monologue, based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1864 existentialist novella about a troubled young man who locks himself away from the world. The nameless man, now living Underground, recounts details of his past life Above, where a series of painful encounters led him to retreat from society and slowly self-destruct.
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Gerald Garutti directs. Runs until 1 November.
What the critics like
"This is a memorable rendition of a story whose early grasp of the split consciousness of modern life still dazzles," says Dominic Maxwell in The Times. And judging by this utterly charismatic performance, Lloyd will be a star.
Lloyd's gripping portrayal of Dostoevsky's anti-hero conjures a manic verve culminating in "an ecstasy of self-loathing", says Michael Billington in The Guardian. This unnerving 70 minutes, full of smouldering angst, suggests Lloyd is well-equipped to play the tormented anti-heroes of world drama.
"With a one-man show the pressure is all on the performer, and Lloyd delivers", giving a convincing portrait of a self-contradictory, hyper-conscious man, full of darkly absurd humour, says Neil Dowden on What's On Stage. This disturbingly in-your-face portrayal of psychological breakdown is compelling.
What they don't like
"Despite Lloyd's virtuosity and Garutti's thoughtful direction, it's hard not to conclude that the Underground Man is the sort of perverse figure it's much easier to accept on the page than in person," says Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard. He tells us "I have over-philosophised" - too right.
