An extremely unique theatre experience which engages with both past and present theatrical discourse successfully
Every three years, Cambridge University students collaborate with a professional team to revive an ancient Greek tragedy entirely in its original language. This year’s choice was Ion by Euripides, a rarely staged play following temple servant Ion’s attempted reunion with his wronged mother, the Athenian princess Creusa. The performance is accompanied by subtitles showing an accessible English translation, ensuring that this celebration of the ancient Greek language can be enjoyed by all audience members regardless of familiarity with the source material. It would be easy to assume that the ancient language would be the star of the show, and certainly, hearing Euripides’ words delivered by an exceptional cast with expert training in their most affecting mother tongue was a privilege to watch.
However, director Rosalind Parker’s artistic vision is anchored not only in language but in the body, allowing the assault enacted on Creusa to reverberate throughout the dynamic chorus, and delivering a performance which convulses and simmers, breathes and stutters, before it utters a word.
Stunning choral choreography by Izzy Megilley, set to the suitably brooding undercurrent of the fantastic live band, thrusts the tragedy into motion, prefacing the action with a moving suggestion of the past wrongs of Creusa’s rape by Apollo. The performance then crosses the threshold from unsettling choral embodiment into joyous sung exposition as the enchanting Dylan Hughes takes to the stage as Ion, sweeping the steps of the temple where he lives and works. Parker keeps an effective directorial eye on the many shifting surfaces of this play, slipping effectively between terse, swift dialogue and contemplative choral chant, between rumination on the past and vengeful forward action, and most impressively, between a loyalty to Euripides’ context and an ability to place his words in conversation with the modern day audience.
Parker’s negotiations are aided by Leanne Vandenbussche’s reserved yet wonderfully versatile sceneography, shedding a shower of soft black rain upon the stage when Creusa re-entered the site of her abuse causing a sombre shift in atmosphere. This rain remains composite throughout the performance, signifying an irreversible memory and ensuring Creusa’s rape is never forgotten among the surrounding action. This is elevated by judiciously built metrodeck, forming the suggestion of the cave where Creusa was assaulted which lurks continually upstage.
Ion’s action is irregular for a tragedy; there is no violence, there is no death. Having removed much of Ion’s monologuing on his enslaved state, and removing Apollo’s physical presence from the stage altogether, Creusa’s storyline is centralised as the source of tragedy in Parker’s interpretation. This choice reconfigures what could have been a rather misogynistic, unsatisfyingly resolved storyline into one that instead offers an emotive reflection on the aftereffects of trauma appropriate for reception by a modern audience.
Iris Tadie delivers a show-stealing performance as Creusa, her voice laced with agony and close to breaking while her stoic physicality remains defiantly composed. Her grave and troubled Creusa acts as an effective counterpoint to Hughes’ buoyant yet myopic Ion through to the play’s end. Parker handles Euripides’ unsatisfying resolution masterfully: as Creusa expresses forgiveness toward Apollo, the chorus back away from her before unsuccessfully attempting to clean away the black rain from the stage. Creusa lingers, statuesque, unable to move forward. This was a powerful image and my only criticism of this otherwise outstanding performance is that it was not the final one.
A choir enters the scene, somewhat disrupting the still and contemplative atmosphere on stage. While their singing is skillful and initially, enriches the emotional resonance of the play’s end, the cast exit while the choir persists for far too long. For the first time in the three hour performance, the audience’s attention begins to wane – it is a shame to deflate our investment at the final moment. This overlong choir section appeared more pragmatic than stylistic, offering time for the cast to do a costume change to re-enter for one final scene. For me, this scene did not justify the choir’s overextended and dragging stage time, but do go along and decide for yourself.
The Cambridge Greek Play company have not only done justice to Euripides’ Ion but have elevated it to a brilliant fusion of ancient and contemporary theatrical conventions. It is a rarity to see ancient tragedy handled with such competence and masterful interpretative consideration. Creusa’s ruminations are absolutely justified in their continual rumbling from ancient Greece through to the present day – this show must not be missed.