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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Arifa Akbar

Anna Karenina review – Tolstoy’s tragedy fizzes with theatrical brilliance

Natalie Dormer and Jacob Isaacs in Anna Karenina at Chichester Festival theatre.
Seeking her freedom … Natalie Dormer and Jacob Isaacs in Anna Karenina at Chichester Festival theatre. Photograph: Marc Brenner

The stampede of actors making their way from screen to stage continues with Natalie Dormer’s return to the boards as the lead, tragic figure in Leo Tolstoy’s story of one aristocratic unhappy family.

She is exceptional in the part of Anna, inhabiting the boldness, insecurity and anger of the discontented wife seeking her freedom through romantic passion. But there is little chemistry in her relationship with Vronsky (Seamus Dillane) – the rakish military man for whom she leaves her loveless marriage, and he is a non-character, left uncoloured.

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