NHB Modern Plays Anna Karenina

A witty and sensual stage adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece, premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025. 'All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Across the vast panorama of nineteenth-century Russia, everyone is searching for answers in a society on the brink of collapse. Anna Karenina is risking a dangerous love affair with the magnetic Count Vronsky. Levin is wrestling with his thwarted devotion to Kitty. Kitty's been left broken-hearted by Vronsky, and her sister Dolly struggles to reconcile the burdens of repeated childbearing with her husband's continual philandering. Phillip Breen's witty and sensual stage adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece takes us into the hearts and minds of its conflicted, very human characters, and offers a surprisingly funny and deeply moving portrait of infidelity, passion and the search for fulfilment. It was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2025, directed by Breen and starring Natalie Dormer in the title role.