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Cold-Blooded Murder and Colder Blooded Fate
by Nathan Bredeman
Hecuba reviewed October 18, 2004
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| (l-r) Kristin Linklater as Hecuba and Heather Tom as Polyxena in Hecuba |
| Photo Credit:David Gochfeld |
| I have said it before and will say it again: Greek theater is for masochists.
It is for people who like their tragedy served with a side of inevitability and for audiences hungry for blood. For the discerning theatergoer who will not find his night complete until someone loses an eye, Hecuba will not disappoint.
From the very beginning, the play is drenched in blood. It begins at the end of the Trojan War, where Hecuba (Kristin Linklater), once the proud queen of Troy, has been reduced to a slave. Her daughter, Polyxena (Heather Tom), is to be sacrificed in honor of Achilles, and before the play is over, she will discover that her son, Polydorus (Lucas Blondhelm), is dead as well. Hecuba’s chief action concerns her attempt to avenge her son’s murder, which took place at the hands of a trusted friend, King Polymestor (Christopher McCann).
Greek theater is a bracing experience, washed with waves of logic and the darkest fate. Sentiment and pap are absent—perhaps they had not yet been invented. Notions of murder are not simply common, but preordained. A royal birth guarantees death, madness, or exile. All are playthings for the gods, spokes in a celestial wheel set in motion long ago, built for unknown purpose, and destined for unknown place.
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| (l-r) Kristin Linklater as Hecuba and Heather Tom as Polyxena in Hecuba |
| Photo Credit:David Gochfeld |
| There are no wishy-washy “triumph of the human spirit” stories here; the ancient tragedians had a single theme—man’s futile struggle against his bleak fate. At the end of Hecuba, when the mutilated Polymestor predicts that King Agamemnon (Mike Genovese) will die at home and Hecuba herself will turn into a dog, the audience shivers. He speaks the truth. It has been foretold.
Kristin Linklater (whose vocal teachings are renowned) plays Hecuba as a woman for whom the bottom keeps falling out. Grief after grief is piled onto her shoulders, and Ms. Linklater gives terrifying tone to her character's plight. As her daughter, Heather Tom is a vision, a sort of funnel that draws all the available light to her lovely face. Nearly every Greek tragedy has a messenger whose job it is to relate some important offstage event, and Helmar Augustus Cooper, as he tells Hecuba of her daughter's death, is riveting. Perhaps best of all is the chorus of Trojan women, whose grave pronouncements and writhing agonies touch new places of fear.
Director Alex Lippard keeps the show tight and focused, though his costuming decisions are slightly distracting. Hecuba wears a shapeless black dress, Polyxena a white one, and the chorus various styles of dresses, all black. The conquering Greeks, however, dress in modern military garb. The noble Odysseus (Curzon Dobell), King of Ithaca, looks not so much like the hero of an epic poem as an extra from A Few Good Men. King Agamemnon, scion of the House of Atreus, looks like Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf. The costuming decisions have the same unsubtle effect of someone standing behind the actors, waving a giant flag and shouting, “Hey guys! Look! This is relevant!”
Greek theater is cold and should be viewed by those with the strength to endure it. See it, please—masochism or not, it is a refreshing break from theater of thoughtless emotion.
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45 Below
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Category: Drama
Written by: Euripides; Translation by William Arrowsmith
Directed by: Alex Lippard
Produced by: Helena Webb
Opened: October 7, 2004
Closed: October 30, 2004
Running Time: 2 hrs
Theater: 45 Below
Address:
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Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $15.00
• group tickets available
• tickets available at box office
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Creative Team
Written by: Euripides
Translated by: William Arrowsmith
Directed by: Alex Lippard
Produced by: Friendly Fire
Light Designer: Aaron Black
Sound Designer and Musical Director: Allison Leyton-Brown
Set Designer: Erik Flatmo
Costume Designer: Rebecca Dowd
Choreographer: Barbara Allen
Fight Director: Rick Sordelet
Dramaturg: Ben Nadler
Cast
Lucas Blondheim as the Ghost of Polydorus
Kristin Linklater as Hecuba
Janna Gjesdal as Maidservant of Hecuba
Starla Benford as Choryphaeus
Phyllis Johnson, Dale Soules, Kathleen Turco-Lyon as Chorus of Trojan Women
Heather Tom as Polyxena
Curzon Dobell as Odysseus
Scott Casper, Craig Myers, Matthew R. Wilson as Soldiers/attendants
Helmar Augustus Cooper as Talthybius
Mike Genovese as Agamemnon
Christopher McCann as Polymestor
James Gabriel Gilbert, Matthew Reid Seife as Sons of Polymestor
Crew
Production Manager: Lillian K. Minnich
Stage Manager: Brad Gore
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