ANNA KARENINA, Shattered Globe Theatre. Helen Edmundson’s powerful adaptation of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss inspired Vitalist Theatre’s current flawless staging. And she’s distilled the same emotional essence from Tolstoy’s sprawling epic in 160 minutes that blend dreamlike fluidity with pantomimed movement and expressionistic ensemble work. Giving equal emphasis to the novel’s two plots, she anchors the action in sometimes forced exchanges between Anna and Levin. (Irritatingly, they initiate each other’s stories by asking, “Where are you now?”) But they are kindred souls who defy the mores of their era to find happiness: Anna forfeits respectability and family to love the feckless Vronsky, while Levin returns to the soil (and a radical program of agrarian reform), espousing a passionate antimaterialism.
