Rodney Ackland’s Version of Crime Punishment on the Portuguese Stage and its Reception in the Portuguese Press

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1951, during times of strict censorship which had a highly negative impact on Portuguese culture, the Theatre Company of Amélia Rey Colaço and Robles Monteiro brought Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, in a version dramatised by Rodney Ackland, to the Portuguese stage. This short article focuses primarily on the reception of the play in the Portuguese Press of that era and looks critically at this production as an unusual theatrical phenomenon of that era in Portugal.