Robert Tanitch reviews Phaedra(s) at Barbican Theatre, London EC2
Phaedra, you will remember, marries Theseus and falls in love with Hippolytus, her stepson, and when he rejects her she tells her husband Hippolytus raped her.
The story has been told by Euripides (428BC), Ovid (BC/AD?), Seneca (1st century AD), Racine (1677) and more recently, and most revoltingly, by Sarah Kane (1996).
Phaedra, one of the great theatre roles, has been acted by all the great French actresses: Rachel, Sarah Bernhardt, Edwige Feuillere, Maria Cesares, Marie Bell, etc.
In England Phaedra has been acted by Dana Rigg, Glenda Jackson and Helen Mirren.
Greek tragedies are short. Krzysztof Warlikowski’s touring production for Odeon Theatre de L’Europe goes on for three-and-a half hours.
The text, drawn from Wajdi Mouawad, Sarah Kane and J M Coetzee, allows for three perspectives on the heroine.
Isabelle Huppert plays three roles: Aphrodite, Phaedra and Elizabeth Costello
The first perspective begins with an Arab song and a very tall, leggy lap-dancer strutting. Aphrodite in dark glasses is a jaded porn star. An actor pretends to be a dog.
The second perspective is an adaptation of Sarah Kane’s play and in French it sounds very French. Hippolytus, who is renowned throughout the ancient world for his innocence and chastity, is recast as a misanthropic, self-hating slob. The shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho plays continuously on his television set. Only after Phaedra has fellated him, does he tell her he has gonorrhoea.
The third perspective begins with the lap-dancer shaking her head about in an alarming manner. The fictional writer Elizabeth Costello then takes the stage to be interviewed and give her opinions on the gods having sex with humans.
Huppert, an actress of the first rank, has undeniable presence and stamina. Why not do Racine?
In the curtain call she begged Brits to stay in Europe. “We all love you!” she said. An obese man, sitting next to me and clapping very loudly, booed.
I am still unclear if Britain stays in Europe, or if she exits, whether we will be getting more or less pretentious and boring productions such as this.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website
