IPH... To 14 June.
Colchester.
IPH…
by Euripides adapted by Colin Teevan.
Mercury Theatre to 14 ?June 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 12 June 2pm 14 June 2.30pm.
Audio-described 14 June 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 12 June 7.30pm.
Runs 1hr 35min No interval.
TICKETS: 01206 573948.
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 June.
Memorable theatricality as Greek tragedy speaks for today.
There was a lot more to the Greeks than their tragedies. But these plays provide theatre’s first running-commentary on the tough job of being human.
Each generation highlights the tragedies that resonate with contemporary experience. Under Nazi oppression, it was freedom of choice in Antigone, in the aftermath of Balkan displacement dramas like Women of Troy, exploring the aftermath of war for the defeated.
Colin Teevan freely adapted Euripides’ story of a father who sacrifices his daughter to gain the Greek ships a forward wind to Troy, for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in the mid-1990s. But Sue Lefton’s vivid revival makes clear this is a play for the times of a War on Terror. Nadia Morgan’s Iphigeneia matures mentally from childlike enthusiasm as daddy’s girl, greeting her father Agamemnon, or childish insistence anything horrid be taken away, to a willingness to sacrifice her life for the Greeks.
But as her voice gains adult confidence, it is to speak of her country’s glory in terms any neocon would approve. Greece means Democracy, so what is good for the nation is good for the idea. She revels in the chance to choose even death.
Pressure of national expectation (soldiers’ cheers recur offstage) forces people’s hand. Events create their own momentum; Agamemnon’s decision not to send for his daughter is undermined by her arrival. Against this, the mother, Clytemnestra, stands resolute; nothing will change her mind.
The town’s already a military dump, ‘Welcome to Aulis’ scrawled with other graffiti on the walls, the Greek Chorus turned into five streetwise teenagers, with rap and club-dance routines. By the end it’s become the stage for Clytemnestra’s determined revenge, blood smearing her face as blood-red lighting floods the stage.
The brother-kings are well contrasted, Christopher Hunter’s Menelaus loud and angry, Ignatius Anthony’s Agamemnon the more forbidding and stronger-willed. Shuna Snow’s grave queen is a deeply-felt portrayal. Ansuman Biswas provides a score that gradually changes mood from the opening rap. And, supremely, Lefton animates the stage, with contrasts of speed and ritual, dream image and realistic vehemence. Why is such excellent work seen for such a short time?
Old Man: Andrew Neil.
Agamemnon: Ignatius Anthony.
Clytemnestra: Shuna Snow.
Menelaus: Christopher Hunter.
Iphigeneia: Nadia Morgan.
Achilles: Michael Thomson.
Chorus: Charlie Morgan, Clare Humphrey, Ella Vale, Natasha Rickman, Emily Woodward.
Director/Choreographer: Sue Lefton.
Designer: Adrian Linford.
Lighting: Jenny Cane.
Sound: Marcus Christebsen.
Composer: Ansuman Biswas.
Fight director: Philip d’Orleans.
Assistant choreographer: Charlie Morgan.
2008-06-05 00:08:43