Text by Tom Wright; devised by Zoë Atkinson, Matthew Lutton & Tom
Wright
Beckett
Theatre, Malthouse, Aug 10 to 26, 2012
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***
Natasha Herbert & Richard Pyros
IN THE GREEK MYTH AND SOPHOCLES' ANCIENT GREEK PLAY, Oedipus the King unwittingly murdered his father
and married his mother.
If you wondered what
happened before Oedipus discovered his horrific transgressions, On The
Misconception of Oedipus cunningly fabricates an entangled family narrative based
on Jocasta (Natasha Herbert) and Laius (Daniel Schlusser) and the birth of
their doomed son, Oedipus (Richard Pyros).
There is nothing
classical about this play, which is a contemporary exploration of Freud’s
Oedipus Complex. “Misconception” is a pun on the ill-fated birth of Oedipus as
well as a reference to the script’s deliberate fiddling with the myth.
The production begins
promisingly with Tom Wright’s text presenting three, smug, self-absorbed,
middle-class characters who address the audience directly in elaborate
monologues
directed with simplicity
by Matthew Lutton and staged in a bleak, anonymous and unfinished room (Zoë
Atkinson).
Their pretentious
ramblings reveal the parents’ struggle with infertility, the mother’s fear of a
childless future and the father’s overwhelming fear of bearing a monstrous
child.
These oddly compelling,
confrontational opening scenes that focus on language, give way to an abstract,
silent version of Oedipus murdering his father in a show of senseless violence.
Performances by Herbert,
Schlusser and Pyros are sleek, engrossing and skilful, but the play ends,
unfortunately, with a messy, unsatisfying version of the lovers – mother and
son – engaged in banal banter and smooching in a shabby living room.
These intentionally clashing
styles do not illuminate the myth or the characters, but merely act to diminish
the impact of the more stylised, enlightening earlier monologues.
By Kate Herbert
Natasha Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment