Pulling off Greek tragedy for a modern audience, and especially one not versed in its conventions, is hard. Aside from the issue of translation, the presence of gods as characters, the heavily gendered and misogynistic stereotypes, and the unfamiliar device of the chorus can all be alienating. This production successfully navigates most of these pitfalls, with some excellent performances and a modern, idiomatic translation by James Kerr.
The hyper-masculine world of the Greek camp in the Trojan war is replaced by an all-female one in what is, according to the programme, meant to be the near future. There’s a disappointing lack of sense of cohesive time or place, but the claustrophobic community and stress and trauma of battle are clearly portrayed. This is aided by the small ensemble of only six, many doubling roles.
The ever-difficult problem of what to do with the chorus is managed well; the soldiers discuss events amongst themselves and sing in some sections, echoing the delivery of the main performance. Erica Martin’s central performance as Ajax is accomplished, though it occasionally wants a little more depth, and a greater sense of her position on the brink of sanity would be welcome. Her wife Tecmessa (Noga Flashion) is the only human woman in the original Greek, and here gives us a dose of traditional femininity. The remaining actors all form both the chorus and the more minor roles. Ajax’s sister Teucer (Fay Jagger) is striking in her portrayal of grief, and Comfort Fabian makes a good Odysseus, controlled and assured for the most part, but with suggestions of greater depths that we do not see. Laura Trosser is both the goddess Athena and Ajax’s daughter Eurysaces. The cast is completed by Rudzani Moleya, who gives an excellent though brief performance as Agamemnon, capturing the character’s arrogance with its edge of petulance.
Director Maria Makenna has kept most of the production simple, with minimalistic sets. There are occasional missteps, such as Eurysaces’ unnecessary flailing around on the floor while the audience enters, but these are outweighed by the rest of the otherwise streamlined and well-paced production. This is an innovative version of an underperformed play, with an emotional core that really hits home.
“Kate Tulloch performed with a viscerality that demanded not only our attention, but our hearts”
Howard Barker is not an easy playwright to master. A master of eloquence and wit, with a cutting use of profanity that would make a stripper blush, it is easy for his language to overtake the performance, leaving the audience left in a syntactical labyrinth. For The Castle, however, this was certainly not the case, The complex and broken language was treated with simplicity and emotion, resulting in a fascinating and engaging piece.
Performances were largely phenomenal and casting of the larger roles seemed fitting, with a few exceptions. For a linguistically challenging playwright like Barker, vocal training and projection is elemental in successfully getting across the story. For some of the actors, the vastness of the space combined with a naturalistic performance style sometimes proved challenging and some sections of text were lost entirely. Yet the importance of vocal performance was evident in those that were most engaging; Kate Tulloch and Anthony Cozens.
As the male lead, with huge passages of text, Anthony Cozens handled the character of Stucley phenomenally, with elements of a more versatile David Tennant. The performance of Kate Tulloch as Skinner was a stunning experience to witness. With a physicality that took over the stage, she performed with a viscerality that demanded not only our attention, but our hearts; pulling the audience along her narrative trajectory with a bold and daring force with which no one can argue.
The set is largely symbolic, built around the performance space, this suitability brought the piece an additional layer of realism, building upon rather than altering the theatre. A similar enhancement was utilised with tech, feeling almost as if the audio could have solely been an amplification of the echoes of the theatre’s lofty ceilings. Costume and props, for me, were a questionable aspect of the performance, as their simplicity seemed to attempt naturalism and failed miserably, a little like a school nativity. A more symbolic use of colour or material may have better suited the slick performances and text.
The Castle at The Space is a beautifully constructed production, delivering a complex narrative and text spectacularly, I absolutely recommend this production for those less familiar with Barker’s work. Standout performances matched with Adam Hemming’s accessible and streamlined direction makes this production a credit to the entire team.
