THE MINOTAUR. To 19 March.

Sheffield

THE MINOTAUR
by Neil Duffield

Crucible Studio Theatre to 27 Februarythen schools tour to 19 March 2004.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 February

Ancient Greece for modern youth: a fine, accessible yet never simplistic drama well-produced.Stopping off at the Crucible studio during its local schools' tour, this adaptation of mythic Greek goings-on introduces a very human world without losing the sense of one where gods intervene. On a slight slope hinting at Olympus, poles redolent of Greek columns - stand, topped by huge masks.

When donned as headpieces their wearers become the divinities of war, desire, revenge and (less prominently) the arts of civilisation. Bare-headed the performers are human characters, spinning a network of relationships in a compelling story. Through a maze of events - desertion, searching, near-murder - Christian Mortimer's Theseus sets off to search the labyrinth built beneath the Knossos palace by his inventive friend Daedalus (who also stands in for his son Icarus, flying within melting distance of the sun).

Duffield has created (and Mortimer plus Sally Orrock capably perform) interestingly contrasted young types, the one eager for battle in which he moves inexplicably fast from novice to renown the other for flight, invention and discovery. And it's always accessible to the intended 8+ audiences.

Behind the specific action, and its very human dramatic points only a chance revelation prevents Theseus being poisoned by his own father lies a fundamental pattern of human existence: the contrast of light and dark. Daedalus is all light, his plans for Minos' Palace an upper-world glory.

Sally Orrock plays him with ingenuous enthusiasm for life, contrasted by Martin Belville's grave, divided Minos who insists on the glorious building being shadowed by the dark of his underground labyrinth. Belville damps down the obviously tyrannical; rightly - this is a person whose negativity is born of his own suffering.

And the labyrinth becomes an ancient forebear of Orwell's Room 101; the bull-headed creature Theseus confronts is his own worst fear. Karen Simpson's detailed, swift-moving production, played with scrupulous detail within its overall lightness, tells a fine story imbued with significant themes which resonate with young viewers through the youthful characters' engagement in love, friendship and betrayal Theseus, like his father, deserts a woman who loves and helps him. The play's success is in handling all this within its exciting surface narrative.

Aegeus/Minos/Ares: Martin Belville
Ariadne/Medea/Aphrodite: Rachel Morris
Daedalus/Aethra/Artemis: Sally Orrock
Theseus/Apollo: Christian Mortimer

Director: Karen Simpson
Designer: Joslin McKinney
Lighting: Gary Longfield
Composer/Musical Director: Matthew Bugg

2004-03-22 08:00:03