The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) opens its 21st season with Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus’ award-winning new adaptation of the classic Russian novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Peter Sampieri, who directed Gamm productions Red Noses and The Grapes of Wrath directs in a highly charged psychological drama that promises to leave audiences breathless.

If you haven't waded through the immense tome, the story's about an impoverished law student who commits double murder out of desperation, a strait-laced but sympathetic detective investigating the crime, and a young prostitute pointing the way to redemption.

This version is a stripped-down, thrilling adaptation of the famous psychological crime drama that promises to shed new light on a 19th-century masterpiece. Equal parts journey into the complex mind of a killer and searing psychological study, it's a reminder of how exciting a classic can be!

The play is the winner of the 2002-03 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Adaptation.

Estrella said he chose the gripping adaptation for the timeliness of its centuries-old theme. “In a world in which the simple echo of ‘freedom’ justifies the murder and brutalization of the weak and defeated, the novel takes on a devastating immediacy,” he said. “Through the character Raskolnikov, Dostoyevsky demands that each of us reconciles our capacity for extreme violence and boundless self-deception.”

Sampieri called the play, in which just three actors portray numerous characters in Dostoyevsky’s crowded novel, “the best of both worlds.” “The play, like the novel, is a classical piece with character development and humanism—but in a non-linear experimental theater form,” he explained.

Tickets are $23 & $26, For single ticket sales, call 401-723-4266. Or purchase tickets at www.arttixri.com. More information at www.gammtheatre.org. Crime and Punishment runs from September 8 through October 9 at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, RI. [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]