phaedra's love

The second in a Sarah Kane double bill from Fear No Colours (the first being Cleansed), Phaedra’s Love is Kane’s contemporary reimagining of Seneca’s Phaedra. We’re promised a visceral piece and the preset suggests that this will be the case. An engaging and well-paced 50 minute production directed by Julia Midtgard, Phaedra’s Love suggests Kane’s own disengagement with the social order.

Fear No Colours stylises this production in the same vein as its Cleansed. The final scene makes particular use of this, to great effect, with a vicious and primal final tableau. Phaedra’s Love is not as visceral as promised but instead is a sensual and brooding production with bursts of life running through it and occasional momentum drops. Callum Partridge strikes an ominous figure as Hippolytus, unable and unwilling to begin to care, whilst Samuel Skoog’s Doctor adds a welcome energy boost. Phaedra herself (Hannah Torbitt) is shown as a sexual, yearning figure; Torbitt adds a layer of delicacy to her emotionally charged performance.

The company brings the satire out of the play well; it’s easy to spot remnants of UK tabloids in the mob, for example. Phaedra’s Love strikes me as a play that could resonate satirically no matter the year which is, I suppose, both dreadfully sad and a testament to Kane’s writing. The tone of the production is consistently strong, though I would like to see the passion stepped up a notch to contrast against the unrelenting monotony of Hippolytus’s unfeeling life.

This thoughtful production has a wicked streak of black humour lightening the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness and despair that underpins the text. All things considered, this is a bleak play, but Fear No Colours’ production is compelling.

Phaedra’s Love is playing at C Nova (Venue 145) until 31 August, bar 17 and 24. To find out more, visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.