What makes "The Brothers Karamazov" tick?

Director, adapter and Lookingglass Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman discusses with Lookingglass marketing intern
Jessica Wright why she became interested in The Brothers Karamazov, the production’s unique design choices,
and which Karamazov brother she is most like.

Jessica Wright- The theme of “interconnectedness” is very important to the production, yet as a director, how did
you go about expressing such an abstract concept?

Heidi Stillman- Well, the plot itself is a literalization of that thematic; I didn’t fully realize that until I started
working on the book so thoroughly that every single bit of the book is connected somehow. It’s like
this tangled web… which made it hard, because it made it hard to lose things in the adaptation—but
the plot is an exact replica of that theme.

Visually, I’m trying to tie those little kids into the opening image I have in the play—showing that
the Karamazov brothers were little boys at one time. So the play starts at the beginning of life—
with children—and ends at the end. So it ties everything together.

J.W.- This production feels different than other Lookingglass shows—a bit rawer and stripped down.
Why did you decide to push the designs in that direction? And why wasn’t the play set in a specific time
period?

H.S.- Well, those were definitely choices we made with the design—we were trying to have the show not
be at a distance. And we decided not to have it be of a certain time period, just wanting the play to feel
a little closer to us, and not be able to push it away. So, even the seating setup is supposed to make us
feel more within the world that is happening around us, or peeping into the world, as opposed to being
presented the world. And then the costumes and the sound—we wanted to have some Russian flavor and
have SOME time period nods, but also to be modern at the same time. And then it’s also so much more
a show about the acting and the ideas of the script.

J.W.- So, what are the main characters’ attitudes towards this idea of “interconnectedness,” and “I am
my brother’s keeper”—do they rebel against this idea? Do they embrace it?

H.S.- They all have a different point of view in the play—Alyosha as the monk and the spiritual one believes
this, through his philosophy and the teachings of his elder. But Ivan struggles with that idea, along with
man’s inhumanity with man—though he struggles in doing something about it. In some ways, Ivan is probably the
most like the majority of people.

And then Dmitri was just clueless to all of it in a way, just because he’s SO the man of immediate
passion or emotion, but I think that once he’s accused and in jail, it starts to dawn on him the effect
he’s had on the world, and that it’s not how he wants it to be.

And Smerdyakov…[thinks] I don’t know. Obviously he’s more on Ivan’s side of things. But even for
him, he thought he was going to be able to kill the father, and go off and do his own thing, but there’s
still something spoiled about the act for him. Man is very broad. Even the dark characters can’t go totally
dark. There still that opposite pull even in the darkest ones. And Smerdyakov of anybody had so much
reason to do what he did—being one of the brothers, just as much a brother as any of the other ones,
and being brought up as their servant.

Check back for more insights from director and Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman.