REVIEW: The Suppliant Women (Royal Exchange, Manchester)

The Suppliant Women at Manchester's Royal Exchange © Stephen Cummiskey
The Suppliant Women at Manchester’s Royal Exchange
© Stephen Cummiskey
upstaged rating: 

With the sweet smell of incense wafting through the air, a chorus of thirty-five women take to the Royal Exchange’s stage to present David Greig’s new adaptation of Aeschylus’s The Suppliant Women. I use ‘new’ adaptation loosely – I mean that Greig has not stripped back and brought The Suppliant Women to a twentieth-century audience in a direct contemporary fashion. Working alongside director Ramon Gray, Greig has embraced the ritual and structure surrounding Ancient Greek performance and in doing so has set the wonderfully poetic language ablaze for a modern audience. We just need to take our seats and listen. Debating ideas of identity and asylum, it’s a story that resounds as deeply now, in our current migrant crisis, as it did over two thousand years ago.

The Suppliant Women is one of the world’s oldest plays and the only section in Aeschylus’s trilogy to have survived. Written around 463BC, The Suppliant Women tells the story of fifty young women who have fled their homeland, in a bid to escape forced marriage, in order to seek asylum in Greece.

The most striking aspect of this show is the chorus, which is made up of thirty-five girls aged between 16 and 26. Led by Chorus Leader Gemma May, the young women are at the very heart of the production – dressed in colourful batik and floral print, they chant, sing and create soundscapes alongside Ben Burton on Percussion and Callum Armstrong on the ancient Greek aulos. Ramin Gray’s direction is key here- managing to cultivate the raw passion and determination of the chorus alongside Sasha Milavic Davies’s compact but expressive choreography, results in an honest, vulnerable and fearless performance.

The Suppliant Women is certainly one of the most extraordinary theatrical events that I have ever seen. Although written over two millennia ago, the dramatic themes manage to strike a shrill chord with current world events. We are warned at the beginning when we are told that we will “find ourselves reflected in this strange and ancient mirror”. Thrilling, shocking and painfully good.

-Kristy Stott

The Suppliant Women runs at Manchester’s Royal Exchange until April 1st, 2017 and you can get your tickets here.

REVIEW – The Oresteia (HOME, Manchester)

The Oresteia at HOME Manchester. © Graeme Cooper
The Oresteia at HOME Manchester.
© Graeme Cooper
 Date: 28 october 2015
Upstaged Rating: 

It’s pretty apt that the newest theatre in Manchester brings one of the first great works of theatre, Aeschylus’ The Oresteia to its stage. The Oresteia, a Greek tragedy, is a trilogy which first saw the light of day back in 458 BC when it was performed in Athens at the Festival of the god Dionysus. This festival involved pitting poet against poet – a much grander version of the poetry slam competitions that we have today – needless to say Aeschylus’ The Oresteia was triumphant, taking home first-place.

Director Blanche McIntyre uses a gripping and fast paced translation written by Ted Hughes. It’s well condensed which sees the epic trilogy clipped down into a single play of highlights running at around 1 hour 45 minutes.

Hughes’ language is bold and concise and McIntyre’s direction gives a powerful hit of sharpened stage imagery. Laura Hopkins’ design is stark, the action taking place on a stage loaded with dark gravel – it’s as if the dust has fallen on humanity. When Lyndsey Marshal’s powerful but softly spoken, Clytemnestra insists her husband Agamemnon to join her, four of her servants serve to scrape the dirt away with their fingers to reveal a pathway of crimson.

A fringe curtain of metal chains shimmers and clinks behind each character as they exit through it to kill or be killed. It’s ominous and volcanic, there’s a sense of impending doom – that an eruption could occur at any minute.

The Oresteia at HOME Manchester. © Graeme Cooper
The Oresteia at HOME Manchester.
© Graeme Cooper

What is perhaps so special about this production is the chorus which is made up of fifty six Greater Manchester residents. The two choruses, separated into male and female, seek to bridge the gap between the bloody private lives we see on stage and their public implications.  Interestingly, possibly one of the most striking images throughout the whole of the production is that of the furies, played by the members of the community chorus – with their jerky movements they contort their limbs about the stage, long dark hair covering their faces.

-Kristy Stott

The Oresteia is running at HOME until 14 November 2015. Click here for tickets.