Interesting and worthwhile, though it's needed a bit of time to sink in. At once a 'prequel' and a retelling (a re-conception, in one of the two punning senses of the title), and presented as a thoroughly modern (contemporary) piece of theatre, it nonetheless stays close to - or at least engages overtly and knowingly with - the core themes of destiny and freedom that underlie Sophocles' play.
The formal structure of the piece ('play' is slightly misleading) is important, as is its location in theatre - it couldn't have been done as a short story, for example, or a tv hour - not least because both enable the use (and, indeed, dramatisation) of a setting that is clearly and deliberately flagged as contemporary while still drawing directly on elements of the classical Greek origins of the myth, more or less overtly bringing those two sources/locations into dialogue with each other without being forced or artificial about it. For mine, it's not wholly successful - it felt just a small bit underdeveloped, a function maybe of the short (just over an hour) length - but my overall response was certainly positive...I felt myself being forced to grapple with the performance/production on its own terms, and I liked where that took me, so yes, definitely worthwhile.
(w/ Alice, Steph N, Julian, Meribah, Cass, Sim, Steph C, Jarrod and Farrah)
The formal structure of the piece ('play' is slightly misleading) is important, as is its location in theatre - it couldn't have been done as a short story, for example, or a tv hour - not least because both enable the use (and, indeed, dramatisation) of a setting that is clearly and deliberately flagged as contemporary while still drawing directly on elements of the classical Greek origins of the myth, more or less overtly bringing those two sources/locations into dialogue with each other without being forced or artificial about it. For mine, it's not wholly successful - it felt just a small bit underdeveloped, a function maybe of the short (just over an hour) length - but my overall response was certainly positive...I felt myself being forced to grapple with the performance/production on its own terms, and I liked where that took me, so yes, definitely worthwhile.
(w/ Alice, Steph N, Julian, Meribah, Cass, Sim, Steph C, Jarrod and Farrah)
