The Other Place

I loved Alexander Zeldin’s earlier play The Confessions, so I was really keen to see what he had done with the tale of Antigone, reworked for a modern blended suburban family.

The set is a house being renovated to ‘bring in the light’ with walls knocked down and swishing doors to the garden demonstrated to everyone, all very 'Grand Designs'.  But the house used to belong to Chris’s brother and it is being renovated to get rid of the past and move on.  

As part of moving on, Chris (Tobias Menzies) has decided that it is time to scatter the ashes to get his brother finally out of the house, and is determined to do so.   One of his nieces Issy (Alison Oliver) is already living in the house with memories of before and they are joined by Annie (Emma D'Arcy), her sister, who hasn’t let go of an ounce of her grief and has decided that her Dad's ashes should stay in the house. The intransigence and battles between Chris and Annie takes some gasp inducing turns as they tussle with each other, the rest of the family being caught in the crossfire.  Chris's new wife Erica (an excellent as always Nina Sosanya), is proud of her new home but trying to hold it all together and protect Leni (Lee Braithwaite) her teenage child; prepared to forgive and forget anything to keep things together, another quieter tragedy pending. 

Annie is fierce grief personified, and in line with the original character Antigone, is holding onto it with everything she has, bloody minded till the end, and in this modern reading, dealing with mental illness. Meanwhile her sister Issy is torn but trying to find a way forward, loving her sister but frustrated and overwhelmed by her and her irrational need to stay grieving 'He was my Daddy too'.  The final cast member is Tez (Jerry Killick), the building project manager, ineffectual and vanishing whenever there is trouble, but also an example of toxic masculinity.

The set was out to good effect, moving from the domestic to the eerie looming of the garden and the tent where Annie retreats.  The electronic and atmospheric music (I found out afterwards, by Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis) was to put to good effect to add to the unsettled sense of unease as the pressure builds until that denoument. 

So, a proper Greek psychodrama.  There was loads of comedy both black and bathetic (Percy Pigs anyone?) which took the edge off but also made it more unsettling when the pressure came in again.   I wasn't sure about the last 20 minutes or so when the dynamic between Chris and Annie took a strange  turn, but it does sort of make sense given Antigone's back story.  And it did show how Erica will continue to try to hold things together regardless of the cost.  Fantastic performances from everyone, bringing this ancient play bang up to date.

This was a ‘chilled performance' depite the intensity on stage, which meant that the lights weren’t quite as dim as usual, and people were permitted to come and go as they pleased.  To be honest, given that audiences do that anyway these days, it didn't feel very different from the usual.