![]() ![]() The fine balance between authenticity and modern appeal seemed here to be perfectly struck. Together with the band, now gracing the stage in the guise of the Cyclops’ hapless heard (with a remarkable talent for comedic timing!), this well-known tale was infused with life, colour, a touch of high camp and a healthy dose of ‘he’s behind you!’ in a way Julian Clary would have been proud of.Īll that was missing was a Pantomime dame to complete the Palladium Pantheon of Ilya Wray’s Odysseus-cum-handsome prince and Jude Ashcroft and Saul Barrett’s Cyclops, bought to life with some remarkable puppetry. Odysseus (Ilya Wray) and the Cyclops (Saul Barrett & Jude Ashcroft), (Image Credit: Zoe Birkbeck) The theatrical digestif after the feast of tragedy, Euripides’ rarely performed Satyr play infuses Odysseus’ infamous sojourn in the land of the Cyclopes with the comedic touch of the wily Silenus (Saul Bailey) and his motley crew of trouble-making Satyrs, animal-like beings with a penchant for the vino. The action really came into its own, however, in the second half of the double-bill: The Cyclops. Although perhaps these are boundaries that it would have been okay to break. And with this particular beast being a radical invention of contemporary theatre as is – multiple actors were new inventions for Aeschylus’ viewer – it seems there is only so much theatrical fodder to work with.Īs the entrance of the hauntingly powerful Darius (Mithrian Ravindran) and Saul Barrett’s grief-savaged Xerxes, cut through Atossa’s lament with great potency, it seems Aeschylus’ drama was truly pushed to the boundaries of authenticity. Perhaps that is simply the nature of the beast. The rising of Darius (Mithiran Ravindran), (Image Credit: Zoe Birkbeck) One wonders if more could have been done to illuminate and externalise the fires of mourning and tales of battle that Maria Telnikoff’s Atossa (an iron lady for the ancient Greek stage), expertly drew from within to continue the visual wonder set up so well by the show’s opening. The nature of the production seems at times to force the hand of the production regarding some rather tricky staging choices the tiered set that dominated the stage – although expertly used – did become a little monotonous as both cast and creative seemed, at times, backed into a corner. The chorus begin the tale with song (Image Credit: Zoe Birkbeck)įrom Greek key pattern weaving its way upstage, to the chorus, dark eyed and dark robed, staring us down from atop the tiered set, the spectacle plunged us into a world of Hellenic aesthetic and ageless wonder that echoed throughout the tale, perhaps paling only to the wave of swooping lyric, gut-wrenching lament and rhythmic swell that soon overtook the theatre as the chorus began their song.īased upon a powerful counter-cultural comment on the Battle of Salamis (480BC), Aeschylus’ Persians seems to force both modern and contemporary audience alike to don the grief of another, particularly an ‘other’ that seems so far removed from oneself.
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