Phaedra

Synopsis

Tragic epic. Portrait of a powerful woman torn apart by sexual obsession. Phaedra is a woman stricken with a blind, all consuming love for a young man half her age. Her step-son. She struggles to reconcile her uncontrollable desire with her duty and obligations as a wife, mother and public figure.

Our Review:

7 February 2002

In an age where studio theatre is equated with intimacy, how exciting it is to be back at the Riverside Studios where the name is synonymous with two of the capital's most epic spaces. These chilly, high-ceilinged rooms have often played host to some of our most innovative and challenging theatremakers. And so it proves again with this production by a brand-new classical company, Concentric Circles, whose no less exciting arrival this staging heralds.

While the company was due to launch with Colin Firth taking the title role in Hamlet, subsequently regretfully shelved owing to the star's film commitments, they are to be applauded for the rigour with which they've applied themselves instead to a far less commercial and more difficult choice. Racine's Phaedra is hard work at the best of times. The pitfalls are many - not least because drama critics are forever pointing out how much more effective it is in the original French - but also because o...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 14 February 2002:

Nothing new, nothing inovative, a totally boring set and lighting, I could not believe how far this production was from the company's aims, stated in the little programme. I also can not explain tha choise of this fantastic venue to host a production that all it can do is to offer some really good time only to audiences not educated enough to realise how conventional it was....

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