How Was The Show - Red Letter Theater Company at Bryant Lake Bowl

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Phaedra's Love, A Red Letter Theater Company Production at Bryant Lake Bowl on 8/27/09

Nicholas Leeman as Hippolytus - Handout photo

Even before her suicide in 1999 at age 28 (she died while undergoing treatment for depression, a lifelong affliction), English playwright Sarah Kane was a legend. Kane wrote 5 plays remarkable for their vicious cruelty (frenzied beatings, cannibalism), sexual grotesquerie (anal rape, gagging onstage fellatio), all performed with a calm, stripped down, straight forward and unapologetic style that repelled many contemporary critics ("moral sewage-gas", exclaimed one). Other critics (and many fellow playwrights, including Caryl Churchill and Edward Bond) pointed to the life-affirming, even tender sincerity which Kane employs in the service of this difficult material. And, of course, her tremendous skill. With plays like Blasted, Cleansed, Crave, Kane revitalized British theater in the 1990s. In the 10 years since her death Kane's work has been performed all around the world by small theaters with young actors who respond to her brutal, yet fiercely beautiful honesty.

Here in Minneapolis we have Kane's Phaedra's Love, now playing in quite a good production by Red Letter Theater (Bryant Lake Bowl, through August 30, all performances at 7 PM), directed by David Hanzal. A reworking of Greek material handled by, among others, Seneca and Racine, the plot is simple: Phaedra's husband, Theseus (Jonathan Peterson), is gone (fighting a war), leaving his wife Phaedra (the stellar Heather Stone) sexually-obsessed with Hippolytus (Nicholas Leeman), her stepson. Her daughter Strophe (Larissa Shea) tries to dissuade her but it can't be done; Phaedra throws herself at Hippolytus and then, dying, accuses him spuriously of rape. Theseus returns, sees what has happened, engineers the death of Hippolytus (he's torn apart by a crowd of Townspeople – Kayla Hambeck, Peter Heeringa, Eva Nelson, Andrew Sass) and the (mistaken) rape/murder of Strophe. Sound lovely? You should know that Kane referred to this play as "my comedy."

In the Euripides original, Hippolytus is a heroic figure, Greek masculinity personified. Not here. Kane's Hippolytus is grotesque, unwashed, half-paralyzed (he spends most of the play in a rickety old wheelchair), eating day old hamburgers off the floor and masturbating into a dirty gym sock. He is also incapable of dishonesty, unable even to defend himself against the charge of rape. Nicholas Leeman plays this character masterfully, with a perfect balance of disgusting passivity and inspiring bravery. Similarly good is Heather Stone as Phaedra, whose twisted desire for Hippolytus leaves her doubled up, sometimes barely able to move. "I burn." Their scenes together are breathtaking. Jonathan Peterson as Theseus and Larissa Shea as Stophe turn in excellent portrayals. David Hanzal deserves credit for directing these scenes with a slow, unadorned, and mesmerizing intensity.

Where Hanzal stumbles is in the final scene. The paroxysm of violence feels anticlimactic and perfunctory. Strophe's rape occurs upstage, and happens very quickly. The disemboweling of Hippolytus is slowly mimed (in the original production the actors tossed his bloody innards around the stage, howling).

But this is a minor complaint. This is Red Letter Theater's first production (the first, one hopes, of many) and it's well worth a look. Kane's play really works, the actors are very good, and the vagaries of the venue – the noisy a/c, postage stamp stage, the creaking presence throughout of the waitress – actually serve the play. And look fast, the play closes this Sunday.

Location Info: Bryant Lake Bowl
Artist Info: Red Letter Theater Company

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