JULIUS CAESAR

 

 

 

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. 

Directed and designed by Peter Evans. Associate Director Jennifer Tovey. Costume designer Simone Romaniuk. Lighting designer Amelia Lever-Davidson. Composer and sound designer Madeleine Picard. Fight and Movement Director Tim Dashwood. Voice Director Jack Starkey-Gill. Cast: Leon Ford. Jules Billington. Peter Carroll. Septimus Caton. Ray Chong Nee. James Lugton. Ava Madon. Ruby Maishman. Gareth Reeves. Mark Leonard Winter. Brigid Zengeni. Understudies Olivia Ayoub and Oliver Crawford. Bell Shakespeare. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. April 11-19 2026 Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au  or 62752700

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Brigid Zengeni (Brutus), Septimus Caton (Caesar), Peter Carroll (Casca)

 

With his hands bathed in Caesar’s blood, Cassius makes a prophetic declaration – “How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er in states unborn and accents yet unknown. It is an inescapable truth in our own time when attempts have been made on a president’s life and one state has systematically engineered assassinations within an enemy state. In Shakespeare’s version of the events of 44 BC the assassination occurs within the Senate and by Caesar’s own political cohort driven to prevent the  ambitious grasp for kingship.   

 

Brutus (Brigid Zengeni) and Cassius (Leon Ford)

 

Bell Shakespeare’s production could not be more timely nor more propitious. It is because of this that a contemporary audience, gripped by this thrilling performance is able to accept director Peter Evans’s set design of an Italian Mediterranean setting with a Cinzano Umbrella and palm. It is why costume designer Simone Romaniuk has given a supercilious and arrogant Caesar (Septimus Caton) celebrity status with a pristine white suit and his trophy wife Calpurnia (a plunging necklined white Romanesque gown. 

 

Jules Billington (Portia), Brigid Zengeni (Brutus)

Ancient Rome merges with modern day Italy to bring a striking sense of historical inevitability to a fiercely relevant production of Shakespeare’s political philosophy. By placing the play within recent times, we are readily able to accept the lesbian marriage between Brutus (Brigid Zengeni) and Portia (Jules Billington) or the casting of Ruby Maishman as Cinna the Senator. From the opening address to the audience by Billington, dressed in the black robe of the Soothsayer and subsequent action in the audience, the fourth wall is broken and the story unfolds with riveting force. 

Peter Carroll and Leon Ford in Julius Caesar

 Director Evans has distilled Shakespeare’s sweeping tale of murder and revenge into a tightly constructed drama that illuminates motive over spectacle. The cast is reduced to an ensemble of ten actors who double up in varying degrees in minor roles. Ultimately, the play portrays the battle of conflicting motivations, of selfish intent, noble aspiration and loyal devotion. The opposing triumvirate of Brutus, Cassius and Marc Antony (Mark Leonard Winter) feeds Shakespeare’s prophetic warning. Evans’ casting is brilliant. Caesar warns us of Cassius’s dangerous “lean and hungry look” but Leon Ford’s performance is far more incisive than a superficial assessment. His argument to Brutus as to why Caesar must die erupts from deep-seated envy and bitter resentment. Where Zengeni’s Brutus is noble in sentiment and purpose, Ford’s Cassius reveals deep seated loathing. It is his psychotic nature that makes him dangerous, not  his physical leanness. Ford’s performance rises with steely resolve in the lead up to the assassination, only to be hurled down by Cassisus’s vulnerability and moral weakness. His performance is in sharp contrast to Zengeni’s which is no less forceful. Cassius’s manipulative guile is matched by Brutus’s honourable, though misguided motive. Zengeni persuades us to believe that Marc Antony’s acknowledgement of the ‘noblest Roman of them all” is warranted and we are bound as much by Shakespeare’s text as by Zengeni’s performance to evoke empathy for her situation. 

Brigid Zengeni (Brutus), Ava Madon (Calpurnia), Septimus Caton (Caesar)

 

Shakespeare’s dramatic structure is not fleshed out and the scenes after the assassination tend to be more functional, driving the action to the inevitable conclusion. However, the confrontation between Brutus and Cassius at the field of Philippi is an example of tour de force acting by Zengeni and Ford. As Marc Antony, Mark Leonard Winter gives a highly idiosyncratic performance. His phrasing is often erratic in its pausation and forceful enunciation. There is a certain artificiality and insincerity in his delivery which emphasizes his mastery of manipulative rhetoric. He speaks with a modern voice, articulate and accessible. From the moment Leonard Winter cries out “Let slip the dogs of war” we see an Antony consumed by grief and propelled by revenge. Winter’s oration at the Forum, so purposefully manipulated, presents an Antony more cunning and more adept at rhetoric than I have seen in previous productions. It is a performance that at times puzzles in its invention and then expounds with dazzling clarity so that we can believe his human charity over Brutus’s body.

Mark Leonard Winter as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar

 

There is strong support from the cast. Veteran actor Peter Carroll extracts every ounce of droll humour from Casca. Caton is a statuesque Caesar, obsessed with power and yet generous towards his citizens, unless his will is but a fabrication, a most cunning device by Antony. Madon’s Calpurnia and Billington’s Portia make the most of each other’s single scene to capture Calpurnia’s subservience and Portia’s fragile insecurity. Evans with the assistance of composer and sound designer Madeleine Picard keep the tension rising to the climax before interval, but this tends to dissipate in the scene between Antony, Octavius (Ruby Maishman) and Lepidus (Ray Chong Nee) and the presence of Caesar’s ghostly voice-over offered an eerie tone without the threat of doom that should accompany it.

Bell Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar takes a microscope to human motive. In a world where fake news, social media and war and distrust intrude upon our lives, Shakespeare’s genius is Soothsayer to society. Evans and his creative team and cast have staged a Julius Caesar that is dramatically powerful and auspiciously relevant. It “holds as “twere the mirror up to Nature” and leaves us to judge. Don’t miss it.

Photographs by Brett Boardmann

 

 

 

Julius Caesar - Bell Shakespeare

 Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.  Bell Shakespeare at Canberra Theatre Centre, The Playhouse April 10 -18 2026
Duration: 2 hour and 35 minutes, includinginterval

Reviewed by Frank McKone
April 11 – Opening Night

By William Shakespeare
Director & Set Designer: Peter Evans
Associate Director: Jessica Tovey
Costume Designer: Simone Romaniuk
Lighting Designer: Amelia Lever-Davidson
Composer & Sound Designer: Madeleine Picard
Fight and Movement Director: Tim Dashwood
Voice Director: Jack Starkey-Gill
Draftsperson: Dallas Winspear
Intimacy Coordinator: Caroline Kaspar
Associate Dramaturg: Jeremi Campese

Cast:
Cassius – Leon Ford; Portia – Jules Billington; Casca – Peter Carroll
Julius Caesar – Septimus Caton; Metellus – Ray Chong Nee
Decius – James Lugton; Calphurnia – Ava Madon
Cinna – Ruby Maishman; Mark Antony – Mark Leonard Winter
Brutus – Brigid Zengeni; 
Understudy – Olivia Ayoub; Understudy – Oliver Crawford




“It’s been more than 450 years since a monarch ruled in Rome. But now, in the senate and the streets, the forum and the marketplace, the word ‘king’ is being whispered again.”

“Betrayal and chaos rock the republic as Rome teeters on the brink of collapse.”
https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/julius-caesar 

It’s been 237 years since a monarch ruled in America.  But now, in protest demonstrations across the nation, the word ‘king’ is being called out again.  It’s not unreasonable, I think, to say that Trump’s USA “teeters on the brink of collapse.”

So a kind of up-market corporate modern dress, and women playing forceful roles in social change, makes for an appropriate approach to interpreting William Shakespeare’s play where, in the original production (426 years ago) – in Elizabethan Costumes as Status Symbols –  London Johns explains:

“The aim of many modern costume designers is to create a sense of realism. Plays set in a particular location and era require actors to dress in a way that communicates their characters’ time period and culture.

Elizabethan costumes were created with different goals. Instead of conveying their characters’ positions in history, costumes were primarily intended to communicate their characters’ rank in a social hierarchy. 

The anachronism of Elizabethan costumes was a product of a society obsessed with visual markers of social status, where rank determined what kind of clothes people could and could not wear.”
https://yalehistoricalreview.ghost.io/the-hatch-and-brood-of-time-18 

In fact, to re-emphasise her power, Queen Elizabeth I imposed rigid rules about costume, both by day and on stage.

Peter Evans has clearly appreciated why Shakespeare chose to stage the attempt and failure of Julius Caesar to take on absolute power as emperor, while Elizabeth had only recently succeeded (with the help of bad weather) in destroying the Spanish Armada of a challenging despot in 1588, Philip II (Felipe II), a member of the European Habsburg dynasty, who ruled a global empire that included Spain, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy and the Americas, from 1556 to 1598.

Philip was called el Prudente, but if his Armada had succeeded, he would have restored Catholicism in England; and what would have happened to Elizabeth and the Tudors’ Church of England could be anybody’s guess.

What will Donald Trump’s future be, as he ignores Constitutional restraints on the power of a President?

That’s the why?  Now for the wherefore of Bell Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
 
The directing and the performances are top class – among the best of Peter Evans work.  Beginning as a group of actors about to tell us a story, with a prologue including recognition of the First Nations people who have performed their stories where Canberra Theatre stands for many more thousands of years than the 2000 since Julius Caesar was murdered, we are set up in the right relationship with a modern company presenting us with Shakespeare’s play.

This allows us to accept changes to the playscript that bring out modern issues, especially the role of women as equals in status and political power as men.  Brutus is not only played by a woman actor, but is a female character, married to her wife, Portia.

At first it took me a little while to accept, because Shakespeare had men whose names, from the Latin, end in ‘us’; while his women had names ending in ‘a’.  

The change does an odd thing: the irony of the sound and meaning of his name – Brutus – when he is quite the opposite of a brute (so unlike the determined Cassius, and up-himself Caesar) is re-emphasised when she is clearly so in love with Portia, who tries so hard to keep her out of trouble, saying “You’ve ungently, Brutus, stole from my bed”, and they kiss passionately as she still decides she has to go, saying to her justifiably anxious wife:  “And by and by thy bosom shall partake the secrets of my heart”.  All played with great depth of feeling by Brigid Zengeni and Jules Billington.

When Caesar says as he is stabbed “Et tu, Brute!”, he really is astounded.

And then there’s Cassius, played so powerfully by Leon Ford as a man angered in the extreme by this self-flattering manipulative Caesar (who had to remind me, of course, of Donald Trump) not just because of the lie that his taking more power is good for Rome, but because of how Caesar looks down on him as a lower class of person.

Ford, beyond other Cassius’s, takes us into his conflicted mind, so angry that the moral concern against killing has to be overcome, but so worried about his sister and whether she will be alright if she takes on killing Caesar.  

In original history, which Shakespeare kept to, Cassius was married to Brutus’ sister Junia Tertia, but in Bell Shakespeare Brutus’s feelings for her ‘brother’ Cassius are stronger than ever.

Even Shakespeare had a problem with the play fading away in the second half, drowning a bit too much in the details of the battle at Philippi.  But here, in Bell Shakespeare Modern, we feel for and understand why Cassius and Brutus finally commit suicide – because they have failed themselves as much as having failed Rome.

Not to be missed – one of Bell Shakespeare’s best.  And I have to say the revival of Peter Carroll as Casca is just wonderful for the warmth of his comedy (for us) despite his confusion (for Casca).

And also make it clear that everyone in this complicated cast got everything right.

Photo: Brett Boardman

 

 

 

 

JULIUS CAESAR

 

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Peter Evans

Bell Shakespeare

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre to 18 April

 

Reviewed by Len Power 11 April 2026

 

When you think over what you have just seen in Bell Shakespeare’s production of “Julius Caesar”, an uneasiness settles over you. There is the brutal murder of Caesar, of course, but then one of the killers, Brutus, convinces us in a speech that Caesar’s assassination was necessary. Mark Antony’s speech that follows quickly and easily moves us to the opposite view. We realize that we have been manipulated by both speakers with just the power of words.

Shakespeare is a master of rhetoric. From the start of the play characters are continually swayed by words that influence, appeal to the emotions and motivate. Peter Evans’ production stresses the effect of the power of words, showing us how easily we can be manipulated. The strong message of the play is easily applied to modern day life and world politics.

The play covers three years from Caesar’s triumphant return to Rome after a war with the sons of Pompey, to his assassination and then the defeat of the killers at the Battle of Philippi.

Brigid Zengeni (Brutus) and Leon Ford (Cassius)

Fine character studies are provided by every member of the cast. Septimus Caton is a strong but charming and charismatic Julius Caesar. Brutus is played by Brigid Zengeni with a warmth and humanity that clearly shows the conflict within the character. Her performance is highly convincing.

Mark Leonard Winter (Mark Antony)

As Mark Antony, Mark Leonard Winter gives a superb performance of his “Friends, Romans, Countryman” speech. That we view his character so differently before and after that moment shows the skill and thought that has gone into his performance.

Septimus Caton (Julius Caesar) and assassins

There is fine work also by Leon Ford as Cassius who convinces as one of the conspirators, Peter Carroll in a subtle and clever portrayal of Casca and Jules Billington as a warm and caring Portia.

The excellent lighting design by Amelia Lever-Davidson is complex and adds considerable atmosphere to the simple but cleverly designed set by the director, Peter Evans. Simone Romaniuk’s costumes are nicely modern with a suggestion of the original period of the play.

This Bell Shakespeare production succeeds with its clarity of the text, the fine performances of the cast and the convincing vision of the director.

 

Photos by Brett Boardman

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

 

THE GREAT GATSBY - BIG LIVE - Canberra Theatre

 

Abbey Hansen as Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby"

THE GREAT GATSBY – BIG LIVE – Canberra Theatre.

Artistic Director and Choreographer:  Joel Burke – Executive Director: Khalid Tarabay

Associate Choreographer: Charmaine Paddick

Ballet Coaches -Paul Knobloch, Kohei Iwamoro

 Set Design by Ben Hambling - Lighting Design by Steven May & Ben Hambling

Costume Design by Sophia Drakos – Special Effects by Harri Thorne

Props and Staging by Jennifer Burke

Canberra Theatre April 8^th – 12^th, 2026 – Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

The Male Ensemble in "The Great Gatsby

Having seen every one of the ballet presentations offered by BIG LIVE since it began presenting its Ballet Galas in the Canberra Theatre, it has been fascinating to watch the growth of this company.

In 2021 entertainment lawyer, Khalid Tarabay and dancer, Joel Burke identified a perceived gap in the dance market. Convinced that ballet should be open and inclusive they hatched a bold plan to create a commercial ballet company that wouldn’t rely on government funding,  but would provide stable, long-term employment for talented Australian performers by challenging public perceptions of the art form by presenting commercially viable, audience-focused productions that are respectful of tradition  but adapted to contemporary audiences.

Canberra audiences became aware of BIG LIVE in 2024 when it presented its production of “The Nutcracker” for two performances in December of that year. It returned in August 2025 with the International Ballet Gala, then again in October 2025 with its production of “Dracula” and again in November 2025 with its refurbished production of “The Nutcracker”. 

Such has been the success of those presentations that Canberra audiences appear to have taken the company to their hearts. The entire season of six performances of “The Great Gatsby” were virtually sold out prior to the production opening in the Canberra Theatre.

It’s a well-deserved acclamation, because “The Great Gatsby” is a stunning demonstration of the success of company founders’ strategy as well as a compelling production that can rightfully be described as ‘of international standard’.

Since its publication in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, set in the American jazz-age, with its themes of wealth, love and the American Dream told through the story of Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, has been the inspiration for numerous adaptations in film, theatre, musicals, even burlesque.

However, you don’t need to have read the novel to enjoy Joel Burke’s balletic interpretation. Burke’s storytelling is crystal clear through-out, aided in part by a masterstroke of including an attractive voice-over intoning illuminating excerpts from Fitzgerald’s novel throughout the ballet.

This device frees the dancers from the exaggerated gestures of traditional ballet mime, allowing them to offer more naturalistic and nuanced interpretations of their character’s thoughts and emotions.

Another reason for the production’s success is the maturation of Burke’s skills as a choreographer.  Joel Burke is a fine actor/dancer, evidenced in his performance in this ballet, as Tom Buchanan, the cuckolded husband of Daisy Buchanan.

In addition to Burke’s roles as Founder, Artistic Director and principal dancer for the company, he has choreographed all of BIG LIVE’S productions.  Initially his choreography for BIG LIVE’s productions of “The Nutcracker” and “Romeo & Juliet” was based on that of the original choreographers, enhanced by choreographic interpolations devised by Burke.

For his first original ballet, “Dracula”, much of his choreography was sometimes repetitive, and his storytelling unclear.

But for “The Great Gatsby” he has hit his straps with inspired choreography that is spectacular, confident, and continually interesting, drawing inspiration from ragtime, vaudeville, even burlesque, but always respecting the balletic tradition.

Watch the inventiveness with which he interprets the decadence of a wild 1920’s party, or the eroticism of Gatsby and Daisy’s sexual encounter. Always balletic as well as tasteful.

His staging of the climatic encounter during which Daisy is forced to choose between Gatsby and her husband Tom, is masterful and thrilling, as is his staging of the scene in which Myrtle Wilson is rundown by a car driven by Gatsby.

Mia Zanardo as Myrtle Wilson in "The Great Gatsby"

Another reason for the success of this production is the thrilling ensemble work. Obviously, each member of the ensemble has been encouraged to create an individual character. A feature of Burke’s choreographic style is his mastery of inventive, intricate lifts.

These are superbly executed by Abbey Hansen and Ervin Zagidullin as Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby in several gorgeous pas de deux. But there are also many spectacular large-scale ensemble sections in this production, many of these involving similar lifts performed in unison by the ensemble.

Ervin Zagidullin (Jay Gatsby) - Abbey Hansen (Daisy Buchanan) in "The Great Gatsby"

 

The ability of the ensemble to maintain character while confidently executing Burke’s demanding choreography and lifts, in perfect unison and with admirable attention to detail, is not only thrilling but also a tribute to the work of ballet coaches Paul Knobloch and Kohei Iwamoro.

As the company’s principal ballerina, in all of BIG LIVE”S productions, Abbey Hansen has always impressed with her dance skills. However, her performance as Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” elevates her to a new level; that of a true ballerina of international standard.

A wonderfully flexible back, beautiful arms, and an ability to lose herself in the role, while confidently executing demanding choreography and acrobatic lifts, while drawing on her dramatic skills to tear at the hearts of her audience with unexpected nuances as a woman torn between impossible choices, combine to make her performance absolutely memorable.

The combination of Hansen’s captivating performance with that of the virtuosic dance skills and compelling presence of charismatic Russian dancer, Ervin Zagidullin, now principal dancer with BIG LIVE, as Jay Gatsby, resulted in several breathtaking sequences during the performance.

Ervin Zagidullin as Jay Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby"

One particularly memorable one being the extraordinary moment when Zagidullin exited a series of dazzling spins to accept a proffered drink exactly on the climaxing note of the music, drawing audible gasps from the audience.

Among other memorable features of this production was the particularly appealing recorded score devised by Jason Fernandez and Dominic Cabusi, which combined well-loved classical pieces with snippets of bluesy jazz music, music by Gershwin, the Charleston, and even the Can Can, enhanced by four on-stage musicians; as well as the impressive art deco settings by Ben Hambling, and the witty, glitzy costumes designed by Sophia Drakos.

Those familiar with the J.Scott Fitzgerald novel may find themselves captivated by how closely the ballet sticks to the events in the novel, especially details such as Gatsby raining expensive shirts on Daisy during their passionate encounter.

Dance enthusiasts will be thrilled by the beautifully detailed dancing, while those who’ve just tagged along for the experience might be surprised at how absorbed they become by the story.

No matter what it is that draws you to this production, don’t miss this opportunity to experience a truly memorable ballet experience.  

                                                                 Photos supplied. 

 

 

      

& JULIET

 

Music and Lyrics by Max Martin and Friends. Book by David West Read. Directed by Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close. Choreographers Charlotte Morphett and James Tolhurst-Close. Musical director Callum Tolhurst-Close. The Q Theatre. March 31 to April 26.

 

& Juliet is a strange creation but quite understandable once you realise it’s one of those juke box musicals, which is why a lot of the songs might sound familiar. Younger audiences will probably get all of this. Older audiences will get the Shakespeare upon which it is based. Some, young or old, might hopefully get both.

Little quotes and references to the original turn up along the way with a certain nudging of the audience to make sure they register.

It’s a cheerful high energy piece but there are undercurrents. A bluff and hearty Shakespeare (Jackson Gibbs) is writing Romeo and Juliet. Wife Anne Hathaway (Vanessa Valois) raises some objections to the tragedy and poses a ‘what if?. What if Juliet (Chloe Stevenson) had survived to make choices about her life?

And in this version she certainly does. Instead of using the dagger she sets out on a journey that involves Paris (the city, not the character), a possible marriage to the wonderfully earnest Francois (Tate Sissian) and a heap of self discovery.

This being a somewhat wild and imaginative take on the story, you might expect a resurrection from the arrogant Romeo (Mackinley Brown), a lot of rich carry on from Angelique the Nurse ( Katie Lis) who is being courted by the forthright Lance (David Santolin) and a different vein of unrequited love from the marvellously fey May (Joshua Kirk) who pines for Francois. Juliet’s parents (Grace Thornton and Sam Thomson) in a strikingly cold image haunt much of her decision making.

A lusty and hard working chorus back all of this up, deftly playing all the necessary smaller roles with aplomb and integrating the set changes with the energy of the show. It’s enjoyable to see set changes being done by people in costume and in character and it drives the show with a real visual bounce. And the hidden orchestra up the back under conductor Callum Tolhurst-Close stay strong in support.

There’s warmth and fitting tensions in the acting, with Gibbs and Valois nicely convincing as Will Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway and Stevenson sustaining a powerful Juliet throughout the piece.

It all has the virtue of allowing reflection on the original and the very young lives that are wasted in pursuit of passion. & Juliet takes a more pragmatic view of events and Stevenson ’s Juliet here comes through into a glowing independence.

Free-Rain’s production serves as a great companion piece to the original Shakespeare and deserves full audiences at The Q.

 

Alanna Maclean

OEDIPUS THE KING

 

Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Adapted and dramatized from a 1904 literal prose translation by RC Jebb  by Michael J. Smith. Produced and directed for Greek Theatre Now by Artistic Director Michael J. Smith. Costume designer Prya Pandya .Masks and props Ben Smith Whatley.Production assistants Misha Pandya.  Shreya Pandya. Graphic designer Emilio Park. Prompt Julie Barnes. Classics advisor Elizabeth Minchin. The Burbidge Amphitheatre. Australian National Botanic Gardens. April 3-6, 2026, Bookings: https://greektheatrenow.com.au/category/tickets/

 Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 

The Chorus of Villagers in OEDIPUS THE KING

It is regrettable that Greek Theatre Now’s very fine production of Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King should have such a very short season over the Easter period. If audiences in Ancient Greece were as rapt in Sophocles’ classic tragedy between around 430-426BC as the were the audiences seated at the Burbidge Amphitheatre in the Botanic Gardens, then we can only marvel at Sophocles’ power as a dramatist. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the garden, Michael J Smith’s version of RC Jebb’s translation paradoxically possesses the power of classical grandeur within a dramatic immediacy that is the very essence of simple, direct and totally engaging storytelling. The artifice that one might expect of ancient Greek theatre is instantly stripped away by a faithful adherence to Aristotle’s Unities of Time, Place and Action and a clarity of intent to communicate directly with the audience in the open-air setting of the amphitheatre.

 

Andrew Mackenzie as Oedipus. Owen Mackey as Creon in OEDIPUS THE KING

Although it is assumed that Oedipus the King would have been performed by professional male actors at the Festival of Dionysus in Athens, director Michael J Smith’s production in the true sense of village storytelling tradition is being performed by amateurs for their community. The production resonates with an earnest conviction to tell the story truthfully, without artifice, but with complete belief in the power of the story.  This is a riddle within a riddle. Oedipus arrives in Thebes and vanquishes the Sphinx who held power over the citizens of Thebes by solving a riddle. He is made king, only then to face the curse of a plague that could only be removed by obeying the God Apollo’s command to reveal the identity of the man who murdered the former king.  

 

George Belibassakis as the Chorus Leader. Kate Blackhurst as Jocasta

Oedipus (Andrew Mackenzie) sets out to discover the murderer but tragically fails to recognize the truths uttered by the wise prophet Teiresias (Owen Maycock). In so doing he commits the sin of Hubris and is fated to be punished in the eyes of the Gods. It is a sin inadvertently committed by his wife Jocasta, widow of the slain king, and her fate is sealed as well when she seeks to dismiss the oracle’s prophesies. Sophocles constructs a mystifying tale of riddles, paradoxes and tragic consequences. Smith’s direction is a feat of masterful precision. Every clue is punctuated by the Chorus of villagers, Tereiseas, and the shepherds complicit in the fate of the baby Oedipus and his fearful destiny.  Every expression of the Chorus is skillfully orchestrated from the wailing pleas to the judgmental pronouncements, accompanied by carefully choreographed movements and choral work. Every moment of this engrossing production serves the moment. When revelation comes to Oedipus and to Jocasta, the production reaches its shocking climax. The truth that the audience has known since Tereisias’s pronouncement is revealed, the confession made and the judgement passed.  

 The ancient Greek tragedy that must have thrilled and shocked the large audiences of Athenian citizens naerly 500 years BC was no less gripping in the Burbidge Amphitheatre. Every word carried the weight of conviction. Every movement expressed the depth of the emotion. As a young Oedipus, Mackenzie traversed the range of emotions from arrogance to anger to frustration and despair. His final bloodied monologue roared with emotional and physical pain. It is in this moment that catharsis looked out from bloodied sightless eyes. Kate Blackhurst as Jocasta howled the grief that could only be stilled by death, a death horrifically described by Blackhurst doubling as the Palace Messenger. There is convincing performance from Owen Mackey as the old prophet Teiresias. Mackey also doubles as Jocasta’s brother Creon, the future king, and a Theban shepherd who left the baby on a hill to die. Liam O’Connor also doubles very effectively as the Corinth messenger who saved the baby from a fate upon the hillside. George Belibassakis gives an imposing performance as the High Priest of Zeus and there is excellent ensemble work from the Chorus – Leader George Belibassakis, Leader Roslyn Hull, Liam O’Connor, Jade Boyle, who also doubles as the boy attendant to Teiresias and Louisa O’Brien. Marcus Mele presents an imposing physical presence in the non verbal role as the Guard to the King of Thebes.

 Ultimately, it is the Gods that hold sway over the lives of mere mortals, who must account for their behaviour. Whether Oedipus’s fate is just or Jocasta deserves a fate of suicide may lead to a different judgement in a secular world. However the moral judgement of the Gods may not always be kind, but as Greek Theatre Now’s crystal clear and expertly researched production demonstrates we are all morally obligated to bear the consequences of our actions.  

As I left across the grass and beneath the trees on a lovely cloudy Autumn day I reflected on an excellent production of an Oedipus the King for our time and thought of no better way to spend ninety minutes in the company of fine thespians and their Muse Sophocles. This production cries out for a revival!

Photos by Peter Hislop