Based on the fragments of Aeschylus' play, Mike Poulton has written an entire "new Ancient Greek tragedy" (Myrmidons)--which is about to be premiered at the Samuel Beckett Theatre (Dublin). Here's a review:
'THIS war will never end," says Athene, "just shift its ground." And though the set incorporates an oil barrel, nothing more heavy-handed than that is attempted in making Myrmidons "relevant".
This is unapologetically classical Greek drama and only writer Mike Poulton's insertion of the odd contemporary turn of phrase - such as when Achilles complains "without me, this war is unnewsworthy" - closes the 2,500-year gap between Aeschylus' original fragments and the audience of Ouroboros' 'brand new' Greek tragedy.
The reason why Greek drama remains pertinent is that its themes are primeval and universal. They tell us that life is a series of hard lessons, that wisdom comes through folly or suffering and that pride always comes before a fall. That the protagonists usually espouse antipathetic heroic values makes no difference to the central truths.
Fittingly, Poulton has us join the action in medias res. Denis Conway's sonorous Apollo sets the scene: Achilles and his fierce soldiers, the Myrmidons, are at Troy for ten years; now they no longer fight, but wait for instruction from Achilles who, after a sleight from Agamemnon, sulks in his tent as Troy's hero Hector gets closer to victory.
Conway's prologue is an avalanche of concrete imagery: of poetry as tough and sinewy as the soldiers of the play, language as hard and beautiful as Achilles' armour, resonant of Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry as well as that of Homer. This is very much a play to listen to, but the set is impressive upon the eye; and the Myrmidons' movement and chorus chants offer relief and an emotional centre to the drama elevating proceedings above mere literary theatre.
Achilles finally emerges in the shape of James Russell's curiously effective petulant prima donna. His churlish attitude, it transpires, stems less from caprice and more from the frustrating knowledge he has as a demigod of how the fates have plotted for him.
The element of hubris comes when Achilles and Patroclus, his lover, think they find a way to cheat fate, which of course leads to tragic nemesis. The classics in Poulton's hands might become a tapestry of rich language and compelling ideas, but they remain comfortingly predictable.
More about the show here...
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