REVIEW: Crime and Punishment at Jack Studio Theatre 15 - 26 September 2026

“Bold and ambitious” ★★★ ½

We first meet our protagonist Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student, moving rocks from one place to another. Barefoot, a piece of string to hold up his tatty trousers, he’s not eating and is behind on his rent. In 1860s Saint Petersburg, there is such dire poverty, “Russia is starving,” after all.

Then a chance meeting with a wreck of a man named Marmeladov, a former civil servant whose desolation mirrors Raskolnikov’s own, propels our threadbare protagonist to murder a pawn-broker to whom he has hocked almost everything. Raskolnikov appears leaving with a bag of roubles and the pawn-broker’s sister half-dead.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a whopper of a modern classic at over 700 pages and around 220,000 words. This debut production by new company, Off By Heart distils some key themes — conscience, empathy, compassion, redemption — into a 90-minute straight-through play.

Adapted and directed by Jack Jacobs who also performs the central role of Raskolnikov. Jacobs discovered the novel during lockdown which inspired him to rework it into a scaled down, chamber piece. This three-hander walks the audience through Raskolnikov’s miserable circumstances and explores how an ordinary young man might be pushed into performing an extraordinary act.

Andrew Callaghan, who trained at the Guilford School of Acting, gives a searing performance as both the Inspector Porfiry and Marmeladov, the inebriated has-been. Bearing a passing resemblance to Malcolm McDowell, Callaghan dominates the stage and gives everything to both roles.

Faye Bishop sings beautifully and deftly multi-roles as Sonya, Marmaladdy’s widow - and the woman Raskolnikov falls for - as well as Natasha, the maid and Lizaveta, the pawn-broker’s sister. Jacobs bears the heaviest weight in the key role and the performance here feels less driven and rather static in comparison.

As a psychological novel that explores the pathology of guilt, this is manifested through some effectively evocative and doom-laden, jarring sound design from Ben Bayliss, rather than the physicality of the performance, although the debates and intellectual gymnastics are compelling. The conversations between the inspector and former student - that unpack the writer’s moral framework written in a paper for a journal years before—are gripping not least because it was a way of thinking that indirectly led to Nazism and some notorious murders including those of the Moors Murderers.

Creativity abounds in this resourceful interpretation of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece. The monochromatic set design by Geoff Howard sees paper screens eventually ripped through to show both the corrosive effect of guilt and the revelation of the truth. The pawn broker - Raskolnikov’s worst nightmare - is presented as a bizarre mask-wearing, evil God creature who speaks like a Dalek through an excellent mask by Ria Rylatt-Chandaman.

To set the scene on this small, simple stage, a tinny transistor radio plays Russian folk songs in the background. All in all, this is an accomplished debut piece. Hats off to Off By Heart who have pulled off an ambitious task with boldness and energy that many others would have baulked at. 

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and produced by Off By Heart at Jack Studio Theatre from 15 - 26 September 2026

BOX OFFICE https://brockleyjack.co.uk/jackstudio-entry/crime-and-punishment-1/

CREATIVES:

Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Adapted and Directed by Jack Jacobs

Assistant Director: Eleanor Pead

Costume Designer: Brandi Swanson-Cross

Lighting Designer: Migle Dulevicius

Movement Director: Tika Mu’tamir

Tech Operator: Noah Leech

Presented by Off By Heart

CAST:

Sonya/Nastasya/Lizaveta: Faye Bishop 

Porfiry/Marmeladov: Andrew Callaghan

Raskolnikov: Jack Jacobs

Photo credit: Vincent Rosec