Olga Tokarczuk’s eco-vegetarian-thriller-horror-comedy (admittedly a niche genre) is as unlikely a novel for stage adaptation as you can find, but Simon McBurney and the ever-innovative Complicité have transformed it into an extraordinary piece of theatre without losing any of the book’s quirky heart, soul, fury and humour.

Ostensibly a whodunnit – men from the local hunting club in a remote Polish mountainside community are dying in mysterious circumstances, with the finger of blame (literally in the case of one victim) potentially pointing at the animals that have been their prey – the story is narrated in the first-person, making the lead character crucial to the whole endeavour.

And in Janina Duszejko boy do we have one. An eccentric old spinster who adores wildlife, the environment, astrology and the poems of William Blake (the wordy title is a line from one of them), she’s a fabulous creation and as original as her animals-revenge-guided-by-the-stars theory about the hunters’ deaths. But could she be right? And if not, who is offing them? And what is the sinister connection between the deceased?

Janina’s no Miss Marple but it’s easy to sympathise with her oddball hunches, largely because we instantly sympathise with her, an instant rapport created by the fact that she speaks to us directly throughout. Addressing the audience via microphone while the action takes place around her is clearly a device to overcome the book’s internal monologue hurdle, and brilliantly effective in the hands of the diminutive Kathryn Hunter, who totally inhabits the free-spirited character and is a force of nature in more ways than one.

Her powerhouse performance is worth the ticket price alone, but there’s so much more to enjoy in this wildly creative production, from the terrific ensemble cast – performing as living and dead people, animals, children, children dressed as animals and more – to the bewilderingly creative set and hi-tech visuals by Rae Smith and Dick Straker respectively. One minute there’s a bare stage with the house lights up, the next you’re down in the forest, up among the stars, partying in a club or getting a glimpse into Janina’s world of astrological charts.

It all adds up to a thrilling production that might contain a heavy animal rights message but has as much to say about the human condition as that of our hero/anti-hero’s four-legged friends, and keeps Complicité right at the cutting-edge of contemporary theatre.

5 stars

Reviewed by Steve Adams at the Belgrade Theatre on Thursday 20 April. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead continues to show until 22 April.