HIPPOLYTUS. To 26 April.

London.

HIPPOLYTUS
by Euripides adapted by Aaron Paterson.

Blue Elephant Theatre 59a Bethwin Road SE5 0XT To 26 April 2008.
Tue-Sat 8pm.
Runs 1hr 15min No interval.

TICKETS: 020 7701 0100.
www.ticketweb.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 April.

Moments of effective theatricality in a production which misses the mark.
This passionate play about not having sex shows Phaedra helplessly in love with her stepson Hippolytus. He’s devoted to chastity and when Phaedra dies of love she leaves a message accusing him of rape. Her husband Theseus reads it, cursing his son, who is killed by the sea-god before all is revealed.

There’s at least a dozen Hollywood storylines here, including sexual desire, a mind twisted by unreturned love, mistaken revenge, father/son relationships and remorse.

Aaron Paterson’s English version has pace and clarity, though, perhaps attempting to capture elements of Greek versification, it has a number of rhymes that make the choric sections sometimes sound like Broadway lyrics.

There’s a strong sense of the polarity between sex goddess Aphrodite and divinity of chastity and hunting, Diana. Bodelle de Ronde’s Aphrodite is lifted aloft at the start, marking her defiance of Hippolytus for ignoring her. And there’s a pointed force in the gestural choric movement that soon develops into an arrow-shooting hunt motif.

Paterson’s production uses song and chant impressively. Where it’s less satisfying is in the speaking of words. Maybe the impact is muffled, even in the Blue Elephant’s small space, by having the simple set, a low-raised wooden wall round three sides of a sand-covered area, placed quite far back. This isn’t a space suited to ringing proclamation; it’s right to go for clarity and contained emotion, but the impact can be muted.

And, after Aphrodite’s challenge, there’s too little involvement. Even Hippolytus, a cherub-faced public-schoolboy in Daniel Curshen’s performance, with a confidence aptly born out of sexual ignorance, should have an enthusiasm for his own lifestyle. Sarit Wilson-Chen’s certainly conveys Phaedra’s intense suffering through physical spasms, pained expressions and an anguished voice. Yet somehow, performance elements that could be imagined to seem strong in rehearsal never consolidate into a coherent character.

James Sutherland gives the sense of an unreflective man of action to the returning Theseus, helped by the Scottish accent. Overall, though, the production’s visual and musical success is let down by the speaking of the script. And, after all, it’s the play that is the thing.

Hippolytus: Daniel Curshen.
Theseus: James Sutherland.
Phaedra: Sarit Wilson-Chen.
Nurse: Rachel Webster.
Aphrodite/Chorus: Bodelle de Ronde.
Tutor/Chorus: Jackson Wright.
Artemis/Chorus: Shakti Edwards.
Chorus: Roxani Zogana, Dimitris Christopolous.

Director: Aaron Paterson.
Designer: Talulah Mason.
Lighting: Jason Kirk.
Music: Douglas Templeton.
Assistant director: Louise Harley.

2008-04-21 00:50:00