Post by marion on Mar 30, 2023 8:45:09 GMT
Well this was surprisingly good. I had gone right off the prospect when I arrived as I booked before the reviews and was hoping for something akin to Helen McCrory playing Medea. This is an ultra modern version and indeed to me the essence of Phaedra had been lost because there is no stepson from her current husband, but a son of a long deceased lover. Well if Carla Bruni is anything to go by, there is no scandal in that!
I doubt this will tour because of the complicated staging. Fortunately the nightmare technical issues from previews which saw it overrun by 30minutes have been resolved. All of the sets are contained within a glass box, God knows why! According to the staff issuing the headsets that can make the sound go funny (great advert) but in fact I found it very clear. It is also multi lingual with surtitles or another actor acting as translator. I did think to myself “only at the National…” but was encouraged by a notice outside where the trigger warnings ran for four lines.
So in this version Phaedra is Helen a senior member of the shadow cabinet and married to a rather dominated guy of Iranian extraction and they appear to be living the North London dream. Helen is Janet McTeer who certainly gave her all, the husband Paul Chahidi who certainly brought some humour.They have a married daughter Isolde and a son Declan. They are a very shouty family and often talk over each other. Now this sort of thing never normally works for me, but it was well done. Into this comes her dead lover’s son, Soufiane played by Assad Bouab, from the French Call My Agent. Now he did surprisingly well, foreign TV actor in a different language in a box!
By the time the third section came, we were in Morocco, Phaedra’s life and career have fallen apart and they are looking for Soufiane. This section is acted in French and Arabic!!!! That added nothing for me and seemed to be scrambled in as if realising, gosh better cram in some tragedy then. Also, all the scene changes are done in pitch blackness whilst we listen to Soufiane’s father reading tapes he had made for his son. In Arabic!
Despite all this, it was a great success and the audience went mad for it. The acting was terrific by the whole cast, not just the stars. It wasn’t faultless but it was a very good trip out.
I doubt this will tour because of the complicated staging. Fortunately the nightmare technical issues from previews which saw it overrun by 30minutes have been resolved. All of the sets are contained within a glass box, God knows why! According to the staff issuing the headsets that can make the sound go funny (great advert) but in fact I found it very clear. It is also multi lingual with surtitles or another actor acting as translator. I did think to myself “only at the National…” but was encouraged by a notice outside where the trigger warnings ran for four lines.
So in this version Phaedra is Helen a senior member of the shadow cabinet and married to a rather dominated guy of Iranian extraction and they appear to be living the North London dream. Helen is Janet McTeer who certainly gave her all, the husband Paul Chahidi who certainly brought some humour.They have a married daughter Isolde and a son Declan. They are a very shouty family and often talk over each other. Now this sort of thing never normally works for me, but it was well done. Into this comes her dead lover’s son, Soufiane played by Assad Bouab, from the French Call My Agent. Now he did surprisingly well, foreign TV actor in a different language in a box!
By the time the third section came, we were in Morocco, Phaedra’s life and career have fallen apart and they are looking for Soufiane. This section is acted in French and Arabic!!!! That added nothing for me and seemed to be scrambled in as if realising, gosh better cram in some tragedy then. Also, all the scene changes are done in pitch blackness whilst we listen to Soufiane’s father reading tapes he had made for his son. In Arabic!
Despite all this, it was a great success and the audience went mad for it. The acting was terrific by the whole cast, not just the stars. It wasn’t faultless but it was a very good trip out.
Anymore to come?
