Stage-to-screen review: Phèdre

A new year starts much as the old one ended, in lockdown and with theatres trying their best to remain not only above water financially, but alive in the public's minds. Most high-profile has been the National Theatre, which late last year launched a major new international streaming platform, NTatHome. Of their initial selection of shows available, I've already seen everything except their kids' offering I Want My Hat Back, but if I was going to revisit one I'd already seen and reviewed, Nicholas Hytner's Helen Mirren-starring production of Phèdre would seem the obvious choice: It dates from 2009, making it the oldest recording currently on the service, which means that with over a decade since seeing this live I can treat it more or less with fresh eyes (all I really remembered was that Dominic Cooper's attempt to give "Phèdre" the correct French pronunciation ended up with him repeatedly calling the leading lady "veg.")

Theatre review: Crow

Crow at Greenwich Borough Hall has no connection to the ill-fated 1994 dark superhero movie. A shame, as the cast getting shot mid-scene could only have constituted an improvement. Instead we get an adaptation of Ted Hughes' sinister trickster Crow poems, although in fact very little of Hughes' actual poetry makes it into the show, usually spoken into microphones, over action that at best tangentially relates to the words. The big draw has been the involvement of puppet company Handspring, although despite the publicity heavily quoting the positive reviews for War Horse, this is actually Handspring UK, a new spin-off company from the one that created Joey et al. And in any event, it turns out that however cleverly designed they are, small black puppets up against a black background, dimly lit, are not the feast for the eyes you might imagine.

Theatre review: The Oresteia

The Oresteia is another play I have a personal connection with, having appeared in a production at University (I was a chorus member in Agamemnon and Orestes in Eumenides.) Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War, only to be murdered by his wife in revenge for him sacrificing their daughter to the gods (Agamemnon.) His remaining children Orestes and Electra plot to murder their mother and her lover, and as a result Orestes incurs the wrath of the Furies for matricide (Choephoroi, which covers similar ground to Sophocles' Electra.) Finally, Orestes is put on trial in Athens' newly-minted democracy, and the Furies are forced to give up their claim on his life (Eumenides.) After 17-odd years I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I got was utterly mental: The opening, where the actors stand still and each recites one critical line from the plays (twice) was a clue. When we then go to the Watchman (Joe Robert Buckingham) yelling the opening speech while backstage the rest of the cast bark and growl, it's already clear that the House of Atreus has been turned into The House That Irony Forgot.