Anna Karenina explores "major moment of historical change for the country" - Chichester

Phillip Breen’s adaptation was performed in Japanese in Tokyo a couple years ago.

“I did the first read-through of Phil’s version four years ago,” Jonnie says. “It has been on my mind quite a long time! Phil took it to Tokyo but he wrote it in English and then it was translated in Japanese, and we test drove it in English before it went to Japan – so it feels quite a long time to be in that world! The whole thing has got a very, very clear shape and imagery, and we're finding that as we are learning the dance of it all in rehearsals before adding what I call the depth charges, the real emotional charge of these characters who are in a changing world in Russia.

“We are in 1870 and the railway has just connected Moscow and St Petersburg. You sense the acceleration of communications and movement that is coming. My character is very much old gentry, part of the old oligarchy. He has used his credit card but judgement is coming for his kind. He is a person who's been living life to the max. He is very sensual and he likes to eat well and he's got quite a major roving eye. But like all the others and through the relationships, he is trying to work out what it is to live and what it is to love. He's trying to work out what it means to be happy just at this turning point that will become a major moment of historical change for the country.”

Rehearsals quickly established the scale of the production: “I keep saying that it feels like we are rehearsing an opera. It is operatic in scale. The movement is very specific and each scene has its own imagery. It is going to look really beautiful. I don't want to use the word filmic because it is theatrical – and I know that because I've played Chichester before and I know the depth that the theatre has got. I know it's going to look really beautiful there.”

As for The Norman Conquests, it was played in the round with around 150 seats actually on the stage itself: “It was such a joy and a really, really wonderful experience. It was just six very experienced actors with great comic ability playing this most wonderful set of plays, and every week on Saturday the audience got to see the whole trilogy. They would come in and start with us 11 in the morning and go all the way through till 10 at night. It was a real joy.”

And the memory of it certainly helps with Anna Karenina “though I did come back to see Redlands as a preparation for this last year. Anna Karenina requires a certain type of acting. You could very easily get lost on that big stage. What you're wanting with Anna Karenina is acting that is epic, mythic with almost a Greek sensibility to it at times."