SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
On TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp New Jersey Review
Phaedra Backwards
|
"We lay down with the gorillas or our not so distant ancestors did and voila! Here we are, half breeds with the wild undertow of jungle, reptile, Doberman, shark. We got it all. We got the whole swill in spades. "— Phaedra
|
Julio Monge and Stephanie Roth Haberle
(Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson) |
Phaedra (Stephanie Roth Haberle) has just heard the tragic news that her stepson Hyppolytus, with whom she was indiscreetly toying, was killed falling off a cliff. “Was it steep,” she asks her husband Theseus (Randall Newsome). “I’ve never heard of a shallow cliff,” he answers. Blaming him for his death, Phaedra may have good reason to suspect the worst, but even more reason to suspect that his destiny, as is hers, as well as that of her entire family cannot be averted.
It is Phaedra’s back-story that serves as the trigger in Carr’s exploration of the Greek myth through Phaedra’s fond memories, her nightmarish visions and the enactment of events — some more bizarre and fantastical than others — that lead us from the present to the past and back with some necessary overlapping. But are we ready to cope with Phaedra as a loud-mouthed lush; a crushing bore with nothing more on her mind than to keep up her tart-tongued yammering at her notoriously unfaithful Theseus while she keeps refilling her champagne flute and making indecent, insinuating sexual overtures to Hippolytus (Jake Silbermann) in the presence of his girl friend Aricia (Julienne Hanselka Kim)?
Being ready also means being open and receptive to the lesson of what it apparently meant to be a human, sometimes only a half-human recipient of the gods’ and goddesses’ perverse but all powerful playfulness in time gone by. Just think how much easier it was for the ancient Greeks and Romans to blame who they were, what they did and what they and their progeny were destined for after being subjected to the whims and indiscretions of those manipulating life on earth. Surely humans could not take all the blame for such anti-social behavior as incest, bestiality, infanticide and in general man’s inhumanity to man.
McCarter audiences who recall productions of two of Carr’s previous Irish grounded plays – The Mai in 1996 and Portia Coughlan in 1999 – may think they have an inkling of what to expect. But I suspect they will be surprised and also pleased by the circuitous route she has taken to tell this story. Commissioned by McCarter and developed over the past five years (or ten years, depending on whose feature story you may have read), Phaedra Backwards gives us another perspective of a legend that has continued to intrigue generations of writers.
Going forward by means of going backward works quite well. Far from being confusing, it casts a contemporary and hypothetically psychological light on the ancient Greek myth about Phaedra and her kin, all of whom it appears are more than a little misguided in their lusting. Haberle rants, raves and smolders impressively around the stone terrace of her home as the forces that have defined and are in control of her fate slowly begin to manifest themselves with dramatic urgency under Emily Mann’s artfully conceived and gracefully executed direction.
With his charismatic countenance on display, Randall Newsome keeps us intrigued by simply justifying himself as the egotistical womanizer Theseus. Susan Blommaert is endearing as the Nanny/Housekeeper who mutters and meanders about and is the first one to feel the presence of Phaedra’s intruding, revenge-seeking dead relatives. The good-looking Silbermann did what was expected of him and did it quite well as Phaedra’s easily distractible obsession Hyppolitus. Considering that most, if not all of the characters in this play are generally lacking in character, it is worth noting how this fine company of actors are completely in dramatic synch with the often rib-tickling text.
Yes, the whole thing is pretentious and preposterous in the manner of classic myths. But Carr and the supportive creative team have done a crackerjack job making something very old seem very new if still not very relevant. Carr, inspired (as we are informed) by the version by French playwright Racine (Phaedra in 1677) whose own imagination had been piqued by the previous dramatizations by Roman philosopher/author Seneca the Younger and before him by the Greek Euripides (Hyppolytus) may not be on home turf with this story. She has, nevertheless, embraced the story with a wry and witty sensibility (call it Gaelic-tinged) that allows us to laugh as often as not at the ludicrousness of the plot.
With respect for the many contemporary dramatists who also used the Phaedra story (including Eugene O’Neill, Frank D. Gilroy, Charles L. Mee and Frank McGuinness), Carr brings us to a time and a place that allows the actors to at least have their fun and die while having it. The wide expanse of the large stage serves the minimalist but handsome setting designed by Rachel Hauck. Rectangles within rectangles are etched upon a large glass wall in the background that perhaps suggest time and space without end. A large weathered wooden table and chairs and at a considerable distance a leather chaise lounge are the only furnishings on a stone floor. A low stone wall suggests the cliff that separates the residence from the ocean below. The words “Now and then; then and now; always” are projected on the glass when the play begins. More than a clue, it is also perhaps the answer to the mysteries that the play purports to reveal.
The attire designed by Anita Yavich, particularly the mood-enhancing gowns worn by Phaedra, suggests one world, but one indirectly officiated by characters and creatures from another. To this end, Carr has cleverly given a marvelous reality to Phaedra’s half brother Minotaur (as played with hoof-pounding bravado as well as with a tinge of poignancy by a horned Julio Monge.)
Among projection designer Peter Nigrini’s scary and beautiful images are those showing Phaedra’s childhood as she plays in the fields with her sister Ariadne (Alexandra Erickson and the young Minotaur (Noah Hinsdale). One of the play’s more fantastical and rather comical scenes finds Phaedra’s mother Pasiphae (Angel Desai) planning and practicing her seduction by the white bull with the help of an inventor (Christopher Coucill. Intentionally or not, the scene in which the dead members of Phaedra’s family rise from the sea and scramble over the terrace wall to torment and torture Phaedra for being the cause of her sister Ariadne’s suicide is comically horrific.
An eerily beautiful underscore by Mark Bennett helps to bridge two worlds as far apart as they are unalterably entwined as much by destiny as by design. Perhaps Carr’s play doesn’t ultimately make any more sense out of the myth, its meaning and its characters’ machinations than have any of her predecessors. The important thing to know is that you will have more fun with Phaedra Backwards than you probably ever had with her going forward.
|
Phaedra Backwards By Marina Carr Directed by Emily Mann Cast: Stephanie Roth Haberle (Phaedra), Randall Newsome (Theseus), Angel Desai (Pasiphae, Susan Bommaert (Nanny, the Housekeeper), Christopher Coucill (Inventor), Julio Monge (Minotaur), Julienne Hanzelka Kim (Aricia), Jake Silbermann (Hippolytus), Elsa Rodriguez (Girl, Phaedra’s daughter), Hope Springer (child Phaedra), Alexandra Erickson (child Ariadne) Sean Haberle (Minos), Noah Hinsdale (child Minotaur), Mariann Mayberry (Ariadne). Set Design: Rachel Hauck Costume Design: Anita Yavich Lighting Design: Jeff Croiter Original Music and Sound Design: Mark Bennett Projection Design: Peter Nigrini Movement Director: Peter Pucci Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes no intermission Matthews Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton, NJ. (609) 258 – 2787 Tickets ($20- $60) Performances: Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. From: 10/19/11 Opening: 10/21/11 Closing: 11/06/11 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 10/22/11 |
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe,
E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): >Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email and state if you'd like your comments published in our letters section. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. You can also contact us at Curtainup at Facebook or Curtainup at Twitter and Curtainup's Blog Annex |
Book of Mormon -CDOur review of the show
Slings & Arrows-the complete set
You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company
