Hecuba Goes Through the Motions of Greek Tragedy

HECUBA

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE

 

Euripides' Hecuba, now getting a high-profile production at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre is a serviceable show. The theatre has obtained the well-respected director, Patrick Mason from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, translator, Frank McGuinness, and movie actor, Marsha Mason, for this production. You'd think that people with such high pedigrees would have presented a more volatile and startling production.

 

McGuinness is successful in translating the ancient text into a more current idiom. The story is easy to follow and doesn't overdo the modernisms. He retains most of the passion of the longer monologues.

 

The show is set in modern times. Mr. Mason places his Hecuba in what could be a prisoner-of-war camp in modern Baghdad. He tries very hard to link the show's story of war's ravages and revenge to America's current war. I'm not sure he's successful. Other than this setting, there are no other directorial touches that haven't been seen before in Greek Tragedy. We've seen the wailing women, bloodied bodies, and war between the sexes in productions like this before. Mary Zimmerman's Goodman production of The Trojan Women from a few seasons ago did a better job of trying to make a Greek Tragedy relevant to modern times.

 

Ms. Mason seems to be trying too hard. You see her acting. I never felt for her. Yes, she cries on cue and can switch emotions quickly. But the artifice is visible as she moves from one tragedy to another. The best acting comes from Monet Butler. Her Polyxena is dignified and stately. A little of Mark H. Dold's Polymestor goes a long way. While performing a scene after your eyes have just been gouged out is surely not easy, I don't think it calls for ground-rolling and screeching histrionics. Dold walks a tightrope between tragedy and comedy with his foot more on the side of comedy. He occasionally slips into camp.

 

I think audiences could do worse for an evening out; but they can certainly do better. Hecuba should move an audience. It should stun. This Hecuba merely nags with a wagging finger.

 

Where:         www.chicagoshakes.com

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

800 East Grand Avenue

• Chicago, IL60611

Box Office 312.595.5600 • Administration 312.595.5656

When:         April 26, 2006 – June 18, 2006

How Much:   $20 - $56

 

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