Phedre

Synopsis

Racine, the French Shakespeare, tells the tale of tragic love. Passion overpowers reason for Phedre, who has fallen lustfully in love with her stepson. Her shameless attraction is forbidden, incestuous, unstoppable. The drama that unfolds is a delicate balance of poetic beauty and tragedy.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 12 June 2009

It’s a funny thing, Racine in English, and it’s nobody’s fault, really, but it just doesn’t work. The pleasure of hearing those rolling alexandrines crash around your ears in the original rhythmic, and rhyming, verse, was evident in Declan Donnellan’s recent Cheek by Jowel revival of Andromaque, with French actors.

For this Phedre at the National, director Nicholas Hytner reverts to the 1998 translation by Ted Hughes in which Diana Rigg appeared at the Almeida and in the West End. It’s very good in its way but it’s not Racine. The verse is free form, with occasional pentameters and it’s brutish rather than stately and grand.

Hytner and designer Bob Crowley give it every chance to prosper in a sun-drenched Mediterranean setting of a stone white palace ravaged with bullet holes, open to the elements and beautifully lit by Paule Constable. This suggests the predicament of Phedre herself, descended from the Sun and fixing a return while lan...

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Latest User Review

Rebekkah - 24 August 2009:

I had been looking forward to this for several weeks and was disappointed in most aspects. The positives - the set is excellent and the lighting superb. However, the acting was generally wooden, diction frequently poor and lines inaudible. The wonderful Margaret Tyzak sounded as if struggling with badly fitting false teeth, Dominic West appeared bored and disengaged, Stanley Townsend seemed forced and uncomfortable. Helen Mirren's enthusiasm for her role was spasmodic. I hope I saw the production on an off-night but at £37.50 a ticket I think the audience deserved better....

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