The Idiots Karamazov

Using the characters and events of The Brothers Karamazov as a springboard, the play becomes a lampoon not only of Dostoyevsky but of western culture and literature in general. Dotted with literary allusions and intellectual jibes, it pokes fun at figures ranging from Ernest Hemingway and L. Frank Baum on to Leo Tolstoy, as it turns the saga of the ill-fated Karamazov brothers topsy-turvy. The narrator of the proceedings is the famed translator, Constance Garnett, who struggles to keep the wild goings-on in perspective and under control, and, in the end, settles for conjugating the verb “Karamazov” —which, under the circumstances, makes more sense than one might suspect.