Josie Rourke’s decision to stage novelist Alan Hollinghurst’s blank verse rendition of Racine’s classically themed 1670 tragedy in the round seems, initially, promising as sand sifts down inexorably from above to the sandpit below. But this is a very static play – long speeches, little action – and the reconfiguration extorts too high a price. For much of the time one can see either the expressions of the person speaking or the reactions of the character addressed, but rarely both at once.
Sheathed in a seductive red gown, Anne-Marie Duff’s Berenice, Queen of Palestine, is radiant in love, joyous that the death of his father has finally left Titus, the new Emperor of Rome, free to marry her. And her anguish is palpable, too, when Stephen Campbell Moore’s Titus acknowledges that the people will never tolerate such a union with a foreign queen.
Cue much agonising and soul-searching as the demands of duty conflict with the desires of the heart and Antiochus (Dominic Rowan, unconvincing as a potential suitor in a stiffly formal costume) confesses his own long-standing infatuation with his friend’s royal mistress.
No blood is shed, passions are subjugated to responsibility and, ultimately, despite Duff’s convincing performance, this rather uninvolving production fails to stir the emotions.
Donmar to 24th November
No comments:
Post a Comment