Overview

'All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Across the vast panorama of nineteenth-century Russia, everyone is searching for answers in a society on the brink of collapse. Anna Karenina is risking a dangerous love affair with the magnetic Count Vronsky. Levin is wrestling with his thwarted devotion to Kitty. Kitty's been left broken-hearted by Vronsky, and her sister Dolly struggles to reconcile the burdens of repeated childbearing with her husband's continual philandering. Phillip Breen's witty and sensual stage adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece takes us into the hearts and minds of its conflicted, very human characters, and offers a surprisingly funny and deeply moving portrait of infidelity, passion and the search for fulfilment. It was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025, directed by Breen and starring Natalie Dormer in the title role. 'A magnificently opulent adaptation that provides wonderful entertainment... This witty and sensual version – blending period dress with a contemporary tone – is a surprisingly funny, romantic and unforgettable portrait of infidelity, passion and the search for fulfilment' — Broadway World 'Fizzes with theatrical brilliance... reflects the scope of the novel's ambition... Phillip Breen's adaptation is always original, without playing fast and loose with the story' — Guardian 'A rumbunctious new telling of Tolstoy's story... Breen teases the humour out and very skilfully drives a path through the thick layers of plot to make a clear and accessible consolidation of a novel that was originally written in eight parts... both epic and absorbing' — WhatsOnStage

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9781839044700

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Reviews

'A magnificently opulent adaptation that provides wonderful entertainment... This witty and sensual version – blending period dress with a contemporary tone – is a surprisingly funny, romantic and unforgettable portrait of infidelity, passion and the search for fulfilment' * Broadway World * 'Fizzes with theatrical brilliance... reflects the scope of the novel's ambition... Phillip Breen's adaptation is always original, without playing fast and loose with the story' * Guardian * 'A rumbunctious new telling of Tolstoy's story... Breen teases the humour out and very skilfully drives a path through the thick layers of plot to make a clear and accessible consolidation of a novel that was originally written in eight parts... both epic and absorbing' * WhatsOnStage *

Author Information

Phillip Breen is a theatre director whose work encompasses opera, theatre, comedy, musicals, jazz cabaret, large-scale community theatre projects, new work and classics.  As a writer, he has written adaptations of Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence, Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell and Red or Dead by David Peace.

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