Iphigenia (A Rave Fable) is a Brechtian acid trip like no other. Giving voice to the sidelined daughter of Agamemnon, (sacrificed by her father for the good of the country in the original Greek play, Iphigenia in Aulis) Clumsy Bodies Theatre’s adaptation allows Iphigenia a story that is truly her own, from her own perspective, recontextualised seamlessly within the Juarez Cuidad Murders.
As with most classical adaptations, knowledge of the original text is useful. However, the piece avoids the pitfalls of necessitating previous knowledge by bringing the audience unbroken accessibility through the clarity of its context and narrative. Updating Brechtian devices through multimedia signposting, multi-roling and stylised gesture, the style of the piece is clearly politicised and distant from the emotional trappings of more naturalist drama.
Performances were energetic and well-characterised, with the difficult language handled effortlessly by the company. Credit must go to Sara Jewell (Violeta Imperial), whose nuanced performance provides a more intimate human connection with the audience.
This piece holds the seed of a spectacular fringe show, but requires further development to truly bring its own perspective to Brecht’s foundations. The distancing machinations of the Brechtian work could be further exposed and prioritised, and could be offset further with more broken and connected performances. Due to the lack of connection between performer and audience that was forced by the end-on staging, Iphigenia occasionally lacked the stakes that its narrative requires.
Overall, the piece was fringe theatre at its best, with jarring physicality and an engaging and inspiring political narrative, let down only by the restraints of its conception. This reviewer is left hoping that Iphigenia has earned a transfer at a more inclusive performance space, to allow the growth and connection that the piece has the potential to provide.
Reviewed by Tasmine Airey
Photography by Victor Pãtrãşcan
Iphigenia (A Rave Fable)
is due to appear at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe
“If you love Shakespeare I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy this piece”
This one-man show devised by Dori Engel and Nick Hutchinson is now open for a short run at the Bread and Roses Theatre. The play runs for 50 minutes and explores the outsiders of many of Shakespeare’s plays, in an attempt to shed light and comment on some of his viewpoints found in his writing.
It begins with Dori Engel sitting on the stage as the audience enters in what appears to be his dressing room. This pre-show performance sees him going through his lines, and chatter starts to fill the space but not from the audience. We start to hear voices from many of Shakespeare’s famous plays, the noise gets louder and louder as it starts to fill the space, as it does Dori springs into action. He throws his script into the air out of frustration from trying to learn the words on the page. He then breaks out into a series of monologues, whilst swapping from one Shakespeare character to another.
The set (Melanie Lombard) is minimal and is an over embellished changing room for Dori Engel to use, which did little to add to the characters to be shown on stage. The lighting (Mike Robertson) however is used to great effect to show the changes to Dori’s characters, a simple yet smart way to keep the audience in tune with the roundabout of shifting personas.
Hutchinson’s directing utilised the space to the limits of its potential allowing Dori to fully own the space as he moved around it. There is a a high level of skill on show when delivering Shakespeare’s complex and poetic language, you can tell that Engel and Hutchinson are big fans of Shakespeare’s work. You really feel the understanding that he has for the words he is speaking, even if you struggle to understand them yourself. The development of characters could have been more in-depth, and at times I couldn’t help but feel the performance was lacking in intensity and energy.
I struggled to understand what the play was trying to achieve, and found it difficult to connect with. This play is one that needs a certain level of knowledge of Shakespeare’s work. At times, the play is witty and full of humour, and begins to show the darker side of the Shakespearian mind and if you love Shakespeare I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy this piece, if not, best to keep it at arm’s length.
