My, my, what I night I had. Having thought I was going to be late to Helen Slaney’s directorial contribution to Omniprop’s second production this year, I was pleasantly surprised at being led rather diligently by two Egyptian locals* to the sacred place that is the Old Quad of Melbourne University.
The Old Quad being a place reserved for philosophy, history and classical studies (a steadily decaying field of study at our university) it was an ideal location to set a modern and utterly debaucherous production unraveling the ancient world. Trusting Omniprop to take me on a journey and “muck about with some Greek and Roman plays” (in their own words) I found myself a little flabbergasted.
The play in general doesn’t take itself seriously, and why should it? British writer Tony Harrison I suppose enjoyed having a muddle of fun with the ancients, and this play focuses on the scholarly obsession with uncovering fragments of the past and capturing world fame.
We follow two archaeologists Bernard Grenfell (Nicholas Kato), Arthur Hunt (Seamus Magee) and Apollo (aptly sharing a body with the poor old battered Bernard). The gentleman in search of ancient text rather naughtily unleash a hoard of Fellaheen (The Chorus) who armed with home-made dildos, (popular to most Omniprop productions) run about snorting, sniffing, copulating and causing general havoc.
From here on the plot becomes a little foggy. While I enjoyed the Chorus thoroughly, I found myself due to all the shifting about in the space struggling to catch on to the thundering dialogue and events in the play. Having been sufficiently pummeled by a couple of dedicated Chorus members (and perhaps even sexually assaulted), I was so caught in the action occurring around me I was simply overwhelmed.
One thing was certain though, everyone in the cast dealt with the space marvelously. The Chorus seemed almost united by an umbilical cord, and Olympia Bowman-Derrick’s Kyllene bravely faced the cold night air in a toga with an air that had indeed resembled a sculpture. When she did move, she was deliberately floaty and quite in contrast with the rest of the brutish characters. Nicholas Kato’s (Bernard/Apollo) rendition of back-breaking possession was also rather enjoyable. Both Kato’s pleasing theatrical voice and Seamus Magee’s energy did a fine job in holding our attention between the shifting of scenes.
Bonuses included the complimentary hot cidar drinks, blankets and general thoughtfulness of the chorus and assistants during the interval. Of course I couldn’t forget to mention the toilet rolls that served as ancient scrolls.
n.b May not actually be Egyptian.
Review by Leeor Adar
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Posted Tuesday 15 September, 2009. Updated Tuesday 15 September, 2009.
