Iphigenia in Aulis, Brockley Jack 02 October

**

Picture from Lazarus Theatre Company Facebook page

This was billed as a preview.

The play started with an elaborate session of sound-and-movement, in the spirit of the same company’s Hecuba, then morphed into semi-darkness with lighting from the side as in their Trojan Women.  The Abraham-and-Isaac style happy ending was dispensed with, as was the corresponding explanation of why Artemis had taken against the Greeks in the first place.  Agamemnon was played (by Wayne Reid) as a kindly buffer swept up in events beyond his control, while the faux domestic scenes between him and Clytemnestra (Jocelyn Weld Forester) were just embarrassing.

Many of the parts were severely underplayed, in particular the matter-of-fact acquiescence of Achilles (Jack Greenlees) to marrying Iphigenia–not marrying Iphigenia–his honour being impugned by not saving  Iphigenia.  The man is a crazed homicidal narcissist FFS!   Of course, none of this was helped by the normal problems of playing Greek tragedy in a space vastly smaller than originally intended–happenings that are meant to allow time for expectation, apprehension and release pass by affectlessly like telegraph poles seen from a train.

Director/Designer Gavin Harrington-Odedra also didn’t help himself by effectively abolishing entrances and exits with his penumbra.

Comparing this with their Trojan Women makes me think that having the wrong idea about a Greek tragedy is a great deal better than having no idea at all…

See here for other Greek plays I know about in London.

Tags: 2 star, Brockley Jack, Euripides, Lazarus Theatre Company, not even wrong, review, theatre