PROMETHEUS BOUND till 10 September

London

PROMETHEUS BOUND
by Aeschylus translated by James Kerr

Sound Theatre To 10 September 2005
Runs 1hr 30min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 September 2005

a symphony of suffering with a magnificent central performance.
A summer that’s brought 2 of Aeschylus’ plays – half the surviving stock excepting the complete Oresteia trilogy - indicates he wasn’t a great one for plot development. Compared with Sophocles and Euripides, his coevals and successors on the Athenian stage, Aeschylus’ dramas present a situation rather than narrative or character development. Even his trilogy seems story-soaked by comparison with Suppliants (seen at bac) or Prometheus Bound. Never does the Greeks’ description of playwrights as poets appear more apt.

Prometheus is a prototype rebel, here being punished for saving mankind from divine fury, seeing in them the possibility of arts and civilisation, but principally providing humans with the protection and warmth of fire. This is told in retrospect as Prometheus works through his woes with various visitors.

Directing his own translation (which makes limited concessions to the current urge for dumping specifically Greek references to gain relevance and accessibility), James Kerr uses the Sound’s limited space advantageously, with David Oyelowo’s near-naked Prometheus enter guarded to a complex of chains hanging centre stage. At first, he is magisterially silent. But once the locks go on, Oyelowo lets rip with an extended, flexibly-voiced riff of agony and fury. Every shackle, every fastening’s tested, clanging mightily as he rages against the divine punishment, like an urgent future constricted in the prison of the past.

It’s rage against pain, restriction and injustice. As the last particularly, it echoes in all ages. And it’s emphasised by Kerr’s treatment of the Chorus. These visitors to Prometheus are spread around and among the audience, voices calling suddenly from all directions, emphasising the freedom Prometheus has lost: the young women’s mobility as they flit round the room contrast his raging confinement. It also, however, makes transparent the technical limitations in individual chorus voices.

There’s only one way Prometheus can now face the future, and that’s through his remaining power of prophecy. He foresees the different suffering that will face Hayley Atwell’s quietly impressive Io, her many wanderings and transformation into a cow. This is the only dramatic event in what is a symphony of suffering, a quieter point where Prometheus focuses on someone else’s sufferings to come.

Io: Hayley Atwell
Hermes: Michael Dixon
Prometheus: David Oyelowo
Oceanus: Brian Poyser
Chorus: Amy Brangwyn, Olivia Brown, Jessie Burton, Katherine Drury, Daniela Finley, Alexandra Guelff, Sarah Goldberg, Rosie Holt, Carla Kingham, Laura Tickell

Director: James Kerr
Designer: Paul Wills
Lighting: Mark Jonathan
Sound: Chris Shutt
Composer: Mick Sands
Musician: Alexi Nonis
Assistant director: Polly Findlay

2005-10-17 09:37:03