BACCHAI. To 8 June. The Newcastle-upon-Tyne/ Greece to 29 June.
National Theatre
BACCHAI
by Euripides, translated by Colin Teevan
Olivier Theatre To 12 June 2002
7.15 Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Runs 1hr 50min No interval
TICKETS 020 7452 3000
Review Timothy Ramsden 30 May
Peter Hall's triumphantly theatrical production – which must surely live beyond its present limited run - gives a vividly penetrating account of Euripides' tragedy.Next time some local councillor tries to cut arts spending to build hospitals or schools, reflect: here's a battle going back to Euripides' magnificent tragedy. It's set on the border between city and country; also the edge between King Pentheus and his organised rationality and the bacchic disorder of Dionysus, god of wine, theatre and revelry; things that, 'make endurable the wrack of life'.
Dionysus enters rational Greece from Asia; he might as well be a man from the moon bringing an alien view of life. Behind his character masks, and wearing only white, dark wine-stained, trousers, Greg Hicks adopts a personal gyratory system, which matches his sinuous implication as Dionysus, and creates the doddery old prophet Teiresias. Both are excellent, but it's Dionysus who registers highest.
Disguised as a priest of his own order and interviewed by a still-confident Pentheus, Dionysus all but tells the king who he's interrogating. In many productions, his suggestions seem give-away clues. Here there's no doubting that it's Pentheus' limited, literal brain that blinds him to the obvious - and to the truth that force cannot change men's minds.
Coming in all straight-line uniformed, his troops' heads covered by riot-visors, William Houston's youthfully arrogant monarch shuts out all he cannot comprehend. It makes his later appearances - open-necked and distraught after his palace's destruction, then facing the prospect of dressing as a woman to gain access to Dionysus' groves with squeamish distaste - descending steps to his final destruction: torn apart by women led, in bacchic madness, by his own mother.
The palace crumbles spectacularly, a fissure opening in Alison Chitty's bare wood-disc stage, under Peter Mumford's searching coloured lighting, flame rising from the floors. In contrast, Pentheus' death and his mother Agave's realisation of what she has done are stark, almost unnaturally calm.
The beautifully-choreographed chorus gradually spread like a wine stain across the stage as David Ryall's Herdsman suggests admitting Dionysus' religion. At times red-gowned, the Chorus also disrobe to reveal earthy rags: this production is far too considered to be one-sided.
Supported by Harrison Birtwistle's superb, expressive score – an astounding integration of music and spoken words – this is matchlessly magnificent theatre.
Dionysus/Teiresias/Servant: Greg Hicks
Cadmus/Soldier/Herdsman: David Ryall
Pentheus/Agave: William Houston
Chorus: Nicola Alexis, Ewen Cummins, Lee Haven-Jones, Chuk Iwuji, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Wendy Morgan, Richard Morris, Renzo Murrone, Stefani Pleasance, Margaret Preece, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, Rachel sanders, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Clare Swinburne, Jax Williams
Theban Women: Laura Anderson, Chiara Dollorenzo, Rachel Gomme, Esther hoyuelos, Rebecca Kenyon, Styliani (Astero) Lamprinou, Emma Sweeney, Leanne Tiller
Soldiers: William R. Charlton, Aidan Crowley, Elliott Fisher, David Gallagher, George Georgiou, Graeme Henderson, Ed Jaspers, Ross MacDonald, Bryce Millard, Tom Moody, Lee Rhodes, John Rogers, Joel Staley, James Williams
Director: Peter Hall
Designer: Alison Chitty
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Paul Groothuis
Movement: Marie Gabrielle-Rotie
Company Voice Work: Patsy Rodenburg
Mask Maker: Vicki Hallam
Music: Harrison Birtwistle
Musical directors: Nikola Kodjabashia, Kawai Shiu
Tour;
19-22 June Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
28-29 June Epidaurus Festival, Greece.
2002-05-31 15:49:23