THE SUPPLIANTS. To 7 August.
London
THE SUPPLIANTS
by Aeschylus translated by James Kerr
bac (studio 2) To 7 August 2005
Tue-Sat 8.45pm Sun 6.45pm
Runs 50min No interval
TICKETS: 020 7223 2223
www.bac.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 July
The earliest known play has themes that could have been written today.They're not Muslims, these suppliants seeking asylum in Greece, because they predate Islam by a millennium. And the Europe where they land with stories of persecution back home is pre-Christian by several centuries. This is the earliest drama known to us, yet its topicality indicates that humanity, and inhumanity, don't change much.
King Pelasgus may wear a military uniform, but he has to take public opinion into account before letting the asylum-seekers in. And when their enemies from Egypt arrive, he takes a gulp or two, staring with fear at the threats of what will happen a new kind of war if he doesn't hand the women over.
This is West London's answer to East London (or More London as the south Thameside's called around Tower Bridge) where the Scoop offers Euripides' similarly-themed Children of Hercules. But Sam Leifer's production, presented as a James Menzies Kitchin directing award-winner, contrasts the open-air Scoop by a tight studio production, its audience sitting on benches either side a narrow channel where the action imprisons the women between threats from the sea and the upstage space where they can find protection for a time.
Dominating the space is a huge statue of Zeus with phallus; this is a world where women fear men or rely on them for protection. Only the suppliants' father Danaus gets beyond Zeus' altar to meet the people and the polis.
There is variable acting in Leifer's production, but Amber Agar as the (so to speak) lead Suppliant and Stephenjohn Holgate as the menacing young man from the sea standing over Pelasgus, and overawing him with a determined will, strike home with contrasting voices. Though a studio production has to reduce the large chorus Aeschylus intended, casting a confident 12-year old Chanice Noble as one of the trio gives an extra dimension of vulnerable innocence.
Her happy recollection of their journeying, acted out with a comforting soft-toy animal, personalises this major narrative recapitulation (there's more backstory than present event in the play) while intensifying the horror and fear that elsewhere explode in a cacophony of frightened voices under attack.
Suppliants: Amber Agar, Lauren Hassan-Leslie, Shanice Noble
Danaus: Renu Setna
King Pelasgus: Paul O'Mahony
Captain/King's Official: Stephenjohn Holgate
King's Official: Bertie Carvel
Director: Sam Leifer
Designer: Lucy Osborne
Lighting: Andy Purves
Sound: Emma Laxton
Music: Simon Edwards, Ben Mandelsohn
Fight director: Brett Yount
2005-08-01 13:13:55