A while ago (perhaps ten years ago, now) Me As A Protestant and I staged a production of Racine’s “Britannicus” in Islington, London. It was a fascinating experience (him directing, me designing) and was blessed with a few truly excellent performances – and a pretty vital directorial snap, which Racine absolutely needs. I saw the play some time later, with Toby Stephens as the eponymous hero, with Diana Rigg playing his mother, and was struck by how deadly the play became in a large space: declamatory, slow, passionless – like Classical Greek tragedy without the scale.
And so it was that I went to see The National Theatre’s new production of “Phedre”- Racine’s best play to my mind. Nicholas Hytner directing, Helen Mirren starring (alongside Margaret Tyzack and Dominic Cooper) and a translation by Ted Hughes: so what’s not to love?
Well: the set was great, the above-named actors were great, and the direction was very strong. Theseus was astoundingly bad: with all the heroic presence of Jeremy Beadle, he waddled around the stage like a fisherman on shore leave. But Racine doesn’t work in English. I don’t know that it works brilliantly in French. There is too little duologue, too much declamation and not nearly enough character development – and if your theatre tradition is Shakespearean, it is laughably poor by comparison.
So, I can’t imagine it being done better – but I don’t think I want to see any more Racine again for a long time.
