Washington, DC Review: Hecuba is Good but Flawed Tragedy

By: Maya Cantu Jun. 02, 2005

Greek tragedies should come with warranties: catharsis guaranteed or your money back. That purging of pity and fear, a definition drilled into the head of so many drama students, proves frustratingly elusive in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hecuba, currently playing at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre. The lack of catharsis is made all the more, well, tragic, by the production's near-attainment of it and by Vanessa Redgrave's startling but sometimes underpowered performance.

Laurence Boswell's production of the Euripides classic was panned by many UK critics when Hecuba opened at the Albery Theatre in April. However, major revisions have since been made (as well as a changeover from Boswell to translator Tony Harrison as director), and to all appearances, some of them have worked. There are moments of striking visceral power and vision in the play, which is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War as Queen Hecuba (Redgrave), her daughter Polyxena (Lydia Leonard) and other women of Troy are carried off as war booty (quite literally) by a victorious Greek coalition of Athenians and Spartans. Polyxena is sacrificed to honor the slain Achilles, while Hecuba's son Polydorus (Matthew Douglas) is killed by his guardian, Polymestor (Darrell D'Silva). Hecuba's need for revenge forms the harrowing crux of the show, in which honor clashes with moral weakness, and vengeance with compassion.

Harrison's staging makes tight, fluid use of a chorus of Trojan women who both comment upon and participate in the action. They piteously swarm in front of Es Devlin's amazing set--tiered rows of looming, dingy war tents that engulf much of the stage--and to Mark Sands' stirring music, their voices swell in operatic laments. In one blood-chilling scene, the excellently-cast chorus relates how their lives were ruined as their husbands were hacked to pieces in front of them, and each haunted face movingly conveys the devastation of war and servitude. If the womens' costumes (also by Devlin) recall more contemporary wars in the Middle East, it's probably not unintentional. Robed in ragged, patterned blue and green tunics over loose pants and with kerchiefs draped over their heads, they bring to mind Iraq just as much as ancient Troy. Then, of course, there's the none-too-subtle line in which the enraged Polymestor curses "the terrorists from Troy." Yet the parallels are relevant ones, and Harrison generally doesn't beat the audience over the head with them.

Other scenes have a tragically intense impact. When Hecuba confronts Polymestor with his blood-stained hypocrisy, the combination of Harrison's pungent poetry and the charged acting of Redgrave and D'Silva stings like a raw wound rubbed with salt. Redgrave is terrific here, as she is in most of her moments of vengeful anger. A ravaged fury with a mop of disheveled white hair and contorted, tragic-mask features, she never for a moment lets the audience forget that the slave is still a queen. Yet she fails to sound the depth of Hecuba's despair, and her "keening" sounds more benumbed than it does bereaved. When Polyxena is killed, and Hecuba cries out, "I am destroyed!," it seems as if she were slightly more tortured than she would be at having an amphora vase broken. As a result, the pity and fear become strong sympathy and fear, and scenes that should have the audience choking back tears don't bring out the Kleenex. The production is slightly marred by Harrison's indecision as to whether Hecuba is a play or an opera. While the sung segments are thrilling when sung en masse, some of the lines sung by individual Trojan women are jarring. Ultimately, however, not all scenes receive the same dosages of raw emotional truth.

In addition to D'Silva, Hecuba's cast of RSC players runs this tragic triathlon splendidly, and what a pleasure it is to hear Euripides' and Harrison's rich language wrapped in such crisp English diction. Leonard is particularly impressive as Polyxena, and brought across equal measures of dignity and fear in her royally proud character. As Hecuba's unlikely ally Agamemnon, Malcolm Tierney commandingly portrays this conquering hero who is not without his own sense of moral justice. If this production of Hecuba falls somewhat short of greatness, it is not the fault of the supporting actors.

Yet when Redgrave is good, she is very good indeed, and it comes as no surprise that she has been such an acclaimed theatre and film star for over 40 years. Her failure to completely triumph in this towering role should justify a little ancient Greek-style wringing of hands.

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