Synopsis Dimetos is one of what Fugard himself called his "abberant" plays. It is one of the three that is not set in South Africa, or deals with its politics. Instead it is a lyrical and inexorable tragedy (set, possibly, in modern Greece), that examines the nature of choice a man has over his own self-control, and asks how a person is meant to carry on in the face of awful events for which they are solely responsible, events that then enfold, with tragic consequences as sure as the rise and fall of the tides that flow throughout this beautifully metaphorical play.
A powerhouse performance by Jonathan Pryce just about keeps Athol Fugard’s strange 1975 play afloat, although the audience has to work hard to figure out the metaphor in the story of a reclusive engineer who’s left the city and taken up with his housekeeper Sophia (Anne Reid) and niece Lydia (Holliday Grainger) in a remote village.
There they are visited by civic official Danilo (Alex Lanipekun), who wants Dimetos to return to full civic employment, not waste his time being “a handyman for the peasants.” But Dimetos is wrestling with his demons, and the idea of the beauty of work for its own sake. And he’s tragically obsessed with the attractive young Lydia.
Pryce and his director Douglas Hodge have removed any sense of this being a play about Fugard’s South Africa. Instead, it’s a play about the skill of the artisan, the expressive formulations of hands using materials, clay, rope or pulleys. Bunny Christie’s bare boards design on two levels has a platform decked out with hoists, ladders and rigging.
In a striking first scene, semi-naked Lydia is let down on a rope from the full height of the Donmar into a well to rescue a trapped horse, the writhing figure we later know to be Danilo. Lydia’s ecstasy moves Dimetos to engineer a more explicitly sexual opening for the girl by inviting Danilo to stay for a few days, and the consequences are disastrous.
Pryce moves through the play with a ferocious energy as first a sort of mixed-up version of Eddie Carbone and Prospero and then as an old man of the seaside, five years later, a chastened Timon of Athens, moving into madness, still attended by the reproachful Sophia and visited by the distraught Danilo, seeking punishment and justice.
It’s a wonderful performance in a play that is reluctant to yield its full meaning. The shore of the last scene is infected with the smells emanating from the rotting carcass of a dead mammal on a rock.
Is this beast Dimetos/Prometheus himself, or is it the symbol of a guilt that has rendered him a scavenging and desperate creator in the haunted gloom of his own drive and obsessions? A personal play, then, and finally one about the artist’s cannibalisation of his own life and the materials of his profession. And Pryce gives it his very best shot.
This is such an odd and complex play, I cannot honestly say I understand it. However, it was often intriguing, occasionally breathtaking and held my attention for (most of) it's two hours. The producton values are of the usual Donmar high standard, but its the performances that impressed me most - in particular a terrific stage debut(?) from Holly Grainger and probably the finest performance I've seen Jonathan Pryce give.....and it certainly challenges you and makes you think! Better be challenged here than bored at Madame de Sade. - Gareth James
05 May 09
Those one star reviews below are missing the point about theatre. It's supposed to challenge you, to make you think. If you haven't got the intellectual capacity to sit for a couple of years and become absorbed in the often difficult world of this absorbing play then stick with West End musicals. OK, the two younger actors lacked some experience and were a bit shaky occasionally, but Pryce and Reid delivered brilliant, riveting performances. And I can't understand how anyone could walk out halfway after the astonishing end of act one. The night I saw it, the audience sat in a kind of stunned, stupefied, horrified silence. I don't exactly what the play means, and I'm still trying to work it out, but that is what good/great drama is about. See if if you can. - Mike
25 Apr 09
I have seen some real stinkers of late, but this really isn't one of them. Athol Fugrad is not the easiest writer perhaps, but with the actors giving their best it certainly helped to make sense of this Greek tragedy. Jonathan Price is always good and as Dimetos he doesn't disappoint, particularly in the final scene. Anne Reid is under used, no fault of her own. And the young girl, played by the wonderfully named Holliday Grainger, was terrific as Lydia the object of Dimetos' affections. Without wishing to reveal anything she has two very dramitic moments which certainly made most audience members sit up when I saw it. Danilo, played by Alex Lanipekun, the young visitor sent to lure Dimetos back to the city from his coastal seclusion, delivers his lines in a monotone voice which, contrary to what one might think, only helps to enhance the impact of his performance. With it's superb staging don't be put off by the one *s here - give it a go and make your own mind up about it. - rds
25 Apr 09
If only the screecher had hanged herself earlier and taken the young man with her, we'd at least have had some good acting. A complete stinker! - joesmith
10 Apr 09
The reviewers below need to get out more. I've seen much worse things this year (Mrs Affleck or Madame de Sade anyone?). Not a bad play, the meaning needs to be teased out afterwards, and I thought Jonathan Price and Anne Reid were excellent. Alex Lanipekun is nice to look at but needs to get more experience. - addicted to theatre
30 Mar 09
Pointless awfullness.
This is the worst piece of theatre so far this year. The two young leads are appaling. Jonathan Price puts in an ok performance and Anne Reid is either a genius, or hasn't learned her lines, i fear the latter.
No, i change the opening statement, this really is one of the worst productions AND plays i've ever seen. Why it was even conceivable as a revival so soon after the 2003 Gate theatre version (which was equally as terrible) is beyond me.
Yes i did walk out at the interval. - Suttox
30 Mar 09
I am a loyal fan and supporter of the Donmar (by far my favourite London theatre) but I was bitterly disappointed by Dimetos. It is the worst play I can remember seeing at the Donmar in the past 13 years (I am not among those who would consider this play underperformed and underrated) and has joined my list of top 5 worst plays I have ever seen.
I am beyond disbelief that the critic for the Telegraph has just awarded it 5 stars.
The story is convoluted and tedious - I know there is meant to be all kinds of important symbolism but it was painfully absurd to watch, particularly in the second half. The emotions are so over the top and melodramatic often without a visible trigger for such outpourings - and Alex Lanipekun’s Danilo was so insufferably shouty-voiced (he seemed to have no control over his volume level) that whenever he appeared on stage we recoiled. So much so that most of our row abandoned ship during the intermission.
The change of staging is bizarrely complex for the second half (watching the crew create the mix of sand from various buckets - even sprinkling some small rocks on top -- and lift up the floor boards to expose a stretch of 'beach' was the highlight of the show). Despite Pryce's noble efforts we couldn't wait for it to end! We kept hoping the second half would redeem the first half but it was even more confusing and confounding.
There was part of the play that summed it up for me.
At one point the character of Sophia, played by Anne Reid, stares out across the sea at what is supposedly a walrus carcass rotting on some rocks and says 'It's beginning to stink in here'... I don't think that I was the only member of audience who wanted to shout back "It's been stinking for a long time!".
Unless you are a diehard Athol Fugard fan I would advise that you give this play a miss. I hate criticising anything about the beloved Donmar but this really was memorable for all the wrong reasons. - Alicarru
Re-opened in 1992. Seats 254. 1999 - Ambassador Theatre Group takes over from the Associated Capital Theatres as the landlord of the Donmar Warehouse. 2002 - Michael Grandage succeeds Sam Mendes as Artistic Director of the Donmar. Nick Frankfort succeeds Caro Newling as Executive Producer.
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