At the opening of the play, the goddess of love, Aphrodite,
explains that Hippolytus has sworn chastity and refuses to revere her. Instead,
he honors Artemis, goddess of the hunt. In vengeance, she inspires Phaedra, his
stepmother, to fall in love with him.
The set and costume design was exquisite for the most part.
It was baroque meets steam punk, a kind of decadent grunge. Unfortunately, this
style only extended to three quarters of the cast – with Hippolytus and Theseus
looking unusually out of place. However, to Catherine Steele’s credit, the
design was nicely suited to the backdrop of the Tap Gallery – it was a very
artistic approach to design. A little more cohesion between the actors and the
design might’ve strengthened both – as it stands, the design seems to overpower
the performance.
In this day and age of more frequent gender experimentation
and role reversal it was an interesting concept to have Theseus played by
Katrina Rautenberg, but not a new one. It does beg the question of why, if not
for the betterment of the character (which unfortunately it wasn’t), should
Theseus be played by a woman. Although Rautenberg’s emotional investment was
strong, it wasn’t enough to convince me that it was a necessary or beneficial
decision.
Melissa Brownlow was fantastic as the Nurse, but Phaedra
(Danielle Barnes) and Hippolytus (Richard Hilliar) were sadly overshadowed by
the chorus (Sinead Curry, Cheyne Fynn, Nathaniel Scotcher, Jennifer White), which
was beautifully choreographed (Rachel Weiner) and performed with such
intensity. The chorus carried the show, and made up for some of the main
characters’ unclear intentions.
There were some interesting musical ideas, which
occasionally surfaced, but at times it seemed to be competing with the
performers and was slightly distracting. That was probably the overall theme –
great ideas that competed too much with one another. There is a great vision
that just needs to be edited.
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