Crime and Punishment: Athens | Based on the same-titled novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The instant it is carried out, or the moment it rises in the mind of the perpetrator? How is the shift from legality to illegality defined in terms of time? And what is its punishment? The Cartel company will be exploring a series of ethical, sociological, and philosophical questions through the adaptation of this iconic 1866 novel, using a linear narrative structure to transfer the story to the present day, and setting it in the streets and neighborhoods of Athens.

The young law student Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov takes the law into his own hands to murder the elderly pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna. What might such a vigilante act mean in the year 2023? How relevant is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s masterpiece to the present day? And what inferences can be drawn in the here and now?

“Crime and Punishment: Athens” is coming with a cast of 20 actors to tell a “new” story featuring a “new” Raskolnikov, played by Thodoris Skyftoulis in an utterly realistic way via the directorial vision of Vasilis Bisbikis. The work has been freely adapted by the director in partnership with Giannis Melitopoulos.

The world of Dostoevsky will be converging on stage with the modern-day Western world at a crucial time when the latter seems to be in a state of dramatic transformation, one leading inescapably (whether for better or for worse, no-one can yet say) to its latest, quite different iteration.

But whatever this next manifestation may be, such questions shall always remain vital and timely, since they remain closely intertwined with human nature. And differing answers to these questions across time can perhaps drive change of any kind – be it for better, or for worse.

For Dostoevsky a criminal is “almost a Redeemer, who has taken on himself the guilt which must else have been borne by others. There is no longer any need for one to murder since he has already murdered; and one must be grateful to him, for, except for him, one would have been obliged oneself to murder.”

– Sigmund Freud

(Excerpt from the essay by Sigmund Freud, “Dostoevsky and Parricide,” 1928 [1927], in “The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud,” translated from the German by James Strachey, in collaboration with Anna Freud, Volume XXI [1927-1931], London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1961)

• The partnership between Onassis Culture and Vassilis Bisbikis began in September 2020, when the Onassis Foundation transformed the former factory of the KOCH plastics company into an unexpected space for artistic experimentation and exploration. It is a vast industrial building in an uncharted part of the Renti area, set among housing project blocks, dirt roads, and scrap yards. Vassilis Bisbikis and his Cartel Artspace were among the factory’s first “residents”, holding rehearsals and giving performances there of the works “Of Mice and Men”, “Aris”, and “The Red Lanterns”.
• Since the fall of 2018, more than 25,000 people have seen this stage production of “Of Mice and Men”, adapted from the John Steinbeck novella by Cartel and directed by Vassilis Bisbikis. The production caused quite the stir, garnering rave reviews, and sparking debate on theater’s role in the world today – on its ongoing evolution into a mode and instrument for social action.
• With Onassis Culture as co-producer, “Of Mice and Men” was filmed and presented online, offering up a different approach to the concept of filmed versions of theater performances. Driven by a deep respect for the need audiences have – even indirectly – for a theater experience, the visceral theatrical realism of Vassilis Bisbikis and his Cartel was melded with the conventions of filmmaking, guided by the gaze of cinematographer Dimitris Katsaitis.
• The works of Fyodor Dostoevsky have given rise to two more major productions at Onassis Stegi. Making his Athens debut back in 2016, Konstantin Bogomolov thrilled audiences with his five-hour take on “The Brothers Karamazov”. One year later, the radical Russian would return to Onassis Stegi, this time to direct a group of ten Greek actors in a production of the political epic “Demons”.