fringe: the bunker trilogy - agamemnon

adelaide fringe: the bunker trilogy - agamemnon
Given that Agamemnon, the second part of The Bunker Trilogy, takes place in the same space, with the same actors and the same writer and director as the first part, Morgana, a lot of what I said about that play is relevant here too (and if I'd been able to see all three plays in the same night, this might have been one giant review).

One of the things that I was very impressed with was how easily all four actors switched from the characters in Morgana to a set of radically different characters in Agamemnon.

James Marlow goes from bumbling Gawain to become the titular Agamemnon who is forceful and passionate (in all possible permutations of that word),  Sam Donnelly changes from Lancelot to a Scottish soldier on the battlefield, Hayden Wood transforms from the commanding Arthur to the meek Aegisthus, while Bebe Sanders really gets to shine as Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra.

All the actors also take on different accents this time around... gone are the plummy upper crust accents, replaced by what I think were Yorkshire or Lancashire and Scottish accents.

It's also a much harsher tone... Agamemnon spends the majority of the play either injured and in terrible pain, but there are also flashbacks to happier times, and Marlow does exceptionally well at both. There are still moment of humour, but it's a much darker sense of humour for the most part.

It's actually clear from the start that it's going from a very different tone, as Donnelly emerges out of a smoke filled bunker, shepherding the audience in while hissing that we need to be quiet or "they'll hear us".

I wasn't particularly familiar with the story of Agamemnon, beyond knowing the name, so I was pretty much free to enjoy (that's perhaps the right word, but it does still fit I think) the play as it unfolded.

As I said, there are large chunks of this play that really feel like they're Sanders'... and she manages to go from loving wife to a steely eyed apparition and back again throughout the play... and without giving anything away, the end of the play is so perfectly crafted that I got a little misty eyed again, but only for a moment or two.

Having now seen two of the three plays in the trilogy, I have to say that while you could see just one, I'm pretty sure that to get the best out of the experience, you should see all three!

Current Mood:

No comments: