ION. To 26 June.
Colchester
ION
by Euripides translated by Mike Poulton
Mercury Theatre To 26 June 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 17.19.26 June
BSL Signed 17 June 7.30pm
Post-show Talk-back 16 June
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 01206 573948
boxoffice@mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 June
The Mercury rightly does well by Hermes, Ion and Euripides.Things look bad at first, on a stage showing several hallmarks of Museum Greek Tragedy all grand and inexplicable. There's the sand-covered disc, the ladders (old avant-garde standby) that represent Apollo's temple. Plus naked flames and onstage percussion, sure sign of something ritualistic and ancient. All for a rebellious playwright who never gained acceptance in his own day, and who subverted traditional beliefs.
It looks worse as Ignatius Anthony's Hermes, minor god and messenger, stalks on and swings a disc around his head. But for all the white face and robes, this Hermes soon lurches into an ironic tone. He's no time for humans: get in a mess then ask us gods to sort it out, don'tchya?' Mike Poulton's freer with this character than elsewhere, but Euripides comes clearly through: people invent gods (or God) to make life's miseries explicable.
Though Athens is praised as the city of culture, enlightenment and hope, misery is the underlying human condition. Especially, it's the condition imposed upon women - starkly shown in Creusa, her sisters slaughtered to appease a god, she raped then married to a thug (Toby Longworth's black-clad, sword-bearing and over-raucous Xuthus). Katy Stephens, in contrasting white, gives Creusa a sweetness reconciled to misery if not the loss of her son, matched to resilience and strength of character.
Yet this tragedy of near disaster ends like a comedy, with the sort of contrived reconciliations that cause mirth in Plautus or Moliere. It's part of Euripides' grim irony, the Greek theatre device we call by a Roman name, deus ex machina as a god (or, here, divine messenger) swings in to contrive happiness from human tragedy. It kept traditionalists quiet, allowed the perceptive sceptic to understand the point and is underplayed here in the production's one uncertain step.
David Nicolle convincingly Ion's sweet innocence curdling to hard obstinacy under Xuthus' influence. Other stars of a fine production are Stephens, Anthony and Shuna Snow's Chorus and Messenger. Plus, in a treatment respecting Greek tragedy's mix of word, dance and music, an outstanding, pervasive score from Ansuman Biswas, variously foreboding, thrilling, plangent and sweet.
Hermes: Ignatius Anthony
Ion: David Nicolle
Chorus/Old Servant: Katharine Barker
Chorus Leader: Rosalind Philips
Chorus/Athene: Denise Pitter
Chorus: Claire Ross
Chorus/Pythia: Shuna Snow
Creusa: Katy Stephens
Xuthus: Toby Longworth
Messenger: Andrew Maud
Musician: Ansuman Biswas
Temple Boys: Tom Clancy, Charlie Evans, Nathan Jones, Andy Livingstone, Neil Swanson
Director: David Hunt
Designer: Michael Vale
Lighting: Aideen Malone
Sound: Al Ashford
Composer: Ansuman Biswas
Fight director: Richard Ryan
Assistant director: Nicola Rosewarne
2004-06-16 15:01:02