![]()
ACT ONE
Scene One
Out of the Depths
The CAST enter singing a Russian Orthodox Psalm. They are dressed as their characters â a drunk, a prostitute, a poor gentlewoman and her daughter, a pawnbroker, et cetera.
Out of the depths we cry and we beg you;
Lord hear our prayer up above!
Almighty God, have pity upon us
Show us the face of your love.
Weary and faint in a land without water
Thirsting for you with our soul.
Through the dark night we hope and we pray like
Sentries that long for the dawnâŚ
Through the dark night we hope and we pray like
Sentries that long for the dawnâŚ
The rest of the CAST exit, leaving RASKOLNIKOV alone on stage.
Scene Two
The Idea
RASKOLNIKOV wears a battered top hat; very English. His slept-in coat is the uniform worn by students in nineteenth-century Russia; it has a military touch.
He talks to the audience.
RASKOLNIKOV. When you first consider the idea of murder, thereâs a thereâs a hesitation. And and also, as for instance if you want to be a poet, almost you canât take yourself seriously, which makes you angry of course.
Always thereâs this voice mocking you. âYou students!â it says. âYou talk, you want to abolish the law, you want to abolish everything; the longer you talk the less I believe you. Murder? Youâre too mediocre to murder.â And to show the voice youâre serious, you count the steps from the door of your tenement garret to the door of the pawnbrokerâs. You decide to use an axe.
For a month you are nailed to your bed like youâre sick. You see nobody, eat nothing, sleep without taking your clothes off, argue with the voice. After a while the voice be be begins to say, âIâm bored of this, youâre a time-waster; if youâre going to commit murder, get on with it.â
Thatâs when I decide to go to the pawnbrokerâs, as a rehearsal. I want to consider the obstacles. And the first ob the first obstacle to surmount is going outside. Thereâs nothing funny about it. The landlady is a long story but in brief, I owe her a certain amount of money an unknown amount of money and she lives in the flat below. Iâm obliged to creep down the tenement stairs, and that makes me almost physically sick â the idea that I can contemplate murder but am afraid of the landlady.
Scene Three
The Rehearsal
ALYONA IVANOVNA the pawnbrokerâs house.
RASKOLNIKOV rings the bell. He has a feeling inside like he might throw up. ALYONA IVANOVNA answers the door. She is the middle-class widow of a civil servant; very observant, excellent memory.
RASKOLNIKOV. Itâs Raskolnikov, law student former student. Was here a month month or so ago.
ALYONA. Yes.
RASKOLNIKOV. Iâve come for the same thing again. Pawn,
et cetera.
ALYONA. Come in.
RASKOLNIKOV goes in. The sun in the room hurts his eyes.
RASKOLNIKOV. Bright. Sun setting. You must run see the river.
ALYONA. I never look. What have you brought me?
RASKOLNIKOV takes a watch out of his pocket.
RASKOLNIKOV. This watch.
She takes it and appraises it. By that I donât mean she casts her eye over it â she has a professional tool; an eyeglass or jewellerâs loupe. She wants to know who made the watch, where, and sheâs looking for markings that will tell her that. Like any pawnbroker, her evaluations are based on a detailed knowledge of the market, margins, etc.
Itâs engraved on the back, look. A globe.
ALYONA. The last pledge you brought me. Your monthâs up. The second of June you pledged it, todayâs the fourth of July.
RASKOLNIKOV. Iâll pay another monthâs interest.
ALYONA. Now?
RASKOLNIKOV. A day or two. Have some patience, Alyona Ivanovna.
ALYONA. Whether Iâm patient or not is my business, law student. I gave you a month and the monthâs up. Itâs mine n...
