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ED2018 2/5 Reviews ED2018 Theatre Reviews
The Bacchae (Mermaids: The University Of St Andrews Performing Arts Fund)
By Andy Leask | Published on Thursday 16 August 2018
There’s a lot of potential on display in this take on Euripides’ classic drama. The young cast are enthusiastic and engaging, but there’s an imbalance in the script and direction that is insurmountable. Case in point: the use of dance to represent the Bacchanal orgies – all sinuous motion and driving bass – is inspired, but these scenes are overlong, overstaying their welcome and stalling the narrative. The decision to stage the play as a piece of metatheatre is smart, but it lacks the courage of its conviction, vacillating back and forth between the actors’ disagreements over staging the play and lengthy speeches lifted straight from the text. Either approach could have worked, but in striving for both, they achieved neither.
Greenside @ Infirmary Street, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Andy Leask]
