by Martin Crimp
Directed by Atom Egoyan
 A Canadian Stage Production
at the Bluma Appel Theatre
January 21-February 18, 2012

            Although Atom Egoyan’s visually impressive production hadn’t quite jelled fully on opening night, it is strong enough to show the many excellences of Martin Crimp’s clever adaptation of a Sophoclean tragedy. In Trachiniae, the mythic source is the legend of Deianira’s revenge against Heracles for his adultery with a captured princess. Crimp modernizes the tale in a boldly visceral manner that takes into account the modern currents of international terrorism. Heracles (Greek’s national hero) becomes The General, husband of pampered Amelia (Crimp’s equivalent for Deianira), who is pining for him in an austere “safe house” (to protect her from bad press) while he is in bloodstained Africa doing his dirty business against terrorists and feeding his own lust. Unable to contain her yearning for him, she dispatches her hot-tempered son to find him and bring him back, but Amelia’s world is rocked by the arrival of Laeia (a young African woman) and a little boy, who figure in the eventual unravelling of the plot and of Amelia and The General. When the true identities of these “spoils” of war are established, Amelia dispatches a pillow-encased chemical weapon to destroy The General.

The human side of the story—the devastating effects of adultery, rape, and revenge—is enveloped by a larger world of cruelty and terror, for there is the ubiquitous shadow of tyranny and military brutality that falls across the web of relationships. The modern century is witness to a devastating cycle: terror invites terror for the eradication of terror, it seems, can lead to more terror as the contemporary American war on terror has shown. It seems as if society is fated to this blind cycle because it fails to understand the consequences of its own campaign. 

What makes Crimp’s adaptation especially fascinating is its structural and emotional simplicity. Cruelty and tenderness are not merely part of the play’s title; they are essences of what transpires on stage, although the tale has more cruelty than tenderness. As in Greek tragedy, the idea of a fall or descent into madness or self-destruction is given dramatic substance, with a special poignancy created by the absence of the offending husband and the humiliation of the wife in her own home. Crimp dramatizes Amelia’s loneliness, expressing how she is wounded by her own spousal devotion to a man who cruelly violates her tender trust. And as in Greek tragedy, the passions are enlarged, and Egoyan’s production conveys this through the emotional heat in the performances of Arsinee Khanjian as Amelia (though heavily accented, staccato in rhythm, and overly gesticulatory in the early sections) and Daniel Kash as The General (though his physical affliction rings a little false). Debra Hanson’s set design also adds to the elevated sense by its tall, asymmetrical walls that make it look formidable and forbidding as a cavernous “safe” house rather than warm and domestic—a feeling emphasized by Michael Walton’s flat, cold top lighting that favours shadows and penumbral gloom.

There are vibrant satirical performances from the chorus of Brenda Robins, Cara Ricketts, and Sarah Wilson as the Housemaid, physiotherapist, and beautician who sometimes serve up a deliberately off-key karaoke entertainment by way of ironic commentary, and a deft performance by Nigel Shawn Williams as a cunning political spin doctor. Of the rest, the most remarkable are Jeff Lillico, who gives a highly charged performance as the aggrieved, rebellious son, and Abena Malika, who plays a proud,  carnal Laela. Egoyan gets effective performances from all of them as he exploits the video projections of Cameron Davis to show us segments of agony in close-up. John Gzowski’s sound design also adds to the palpable suspense and agony in the story. If the production looks and feels very “European,” this is deliberate because Egoyan strives for a stylized look while creating a space for emotive heat.

pic 1: (L-R) Thomas Hauff (Richard), Arsinee Khanjian (Amelia) and Abena Malika (Laela)

pic 2: Jeff Lillico (James) and Arsinee Khanjian (Amelia)


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