AGAMEMNON. To 5 September.
London
AGAMEMNON
by Aeschylus translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael
The Scoop In rep to 5 September 2004
Fri-Sun 9pm
Post-show talk 20 August, 3 September
Runs 1hr 15min No interval
Free performances; just turn up
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 August
Free Greek Tragedy in the City.The Scoop is sculpted out of the ground in More London' on the Thames' South Bank (miles east of what's traditionally been South Bank'). It provides a joint view of the erect Victorian stonework of Tower Bridge and the modern tilted glass of City Hall. This imaginative use of the Hall's basement exit area forms a fish-eye amphitheatre that has limits sound's less good than ancient Greek theatres, and there are stone seats and no toilets but provides free summer theatre.
Phil Wilmott's Steam Industry company occupies the space, matching playfully serious Shaw (Androcles and the Lion) with deadly serious Aeschylus. With minimal set and using audience-seating as a place for the Chorus to emerge, this largely modern-dress (and entirely modern-weapon) production focuses on the actors.
The elongated space isn't helpful to Wilmott's attempts to explain the back-story through masks and models (Agamemnon requires a lot be taken in, for all the production's visual efforts). Worst are moments struggling to hear an actor with their back to you while sitting near a flute-player trying to convey music across the space. Nor are the sightlines as good as in a Greek amphitheatre.
Other problems arise within the production. Aeschylus' point that Agamemnon asks for trouble stepping on the red carpet rolled out for him assuming godlike status by so doing - isn't helped when virtually every servant walks across it freely. There is, though, a sinister faded-blood tone to this carpet.
And, while using amplified public-address for Agamemnon's speech (home from the Trojan wars) is a routine production device, but fair enough, it seems unlikely his wife Clytemnestra would use the mike to explain why their infant son Orestes isn't around.
Stop carping it's free Greek Tragedy, for goodness' sake. And Kerry Skinner's Cassandra fated to be right yet forever disbelieved might smack somewhat of the drama school prize performance, but she's still compelling. Her agony at the (cast-vocalised) sounds in her head is intense, the reluctance to walk up the red carpet to death demands compassion and her return in a translucent bodybag is fearful - catharsis aplenty.
The final moment is memorable. Blood-soaked Clytemnestra pleads for an end to revenge killings (she's just carried one out on her husband) as she backs upstairs with her tyrannical lover - Wilmott every stern inch the dictator. He has the rifle, but the people including Agamemnon's army, in conflict with the palace guard - have the solidarity. A powerful closing image, recalling the 20th century's popular revolutions.
2004-08-02 13:50:21