The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/ae/2007/11/16/hecuba_review

November 16, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Hecuba features new actors, great set in performance that lacks drama

Hecuba features new actors, great set in performance that lacks drama

By Lily Chun | Thresher Editorial Staff

Before watching the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts’ production of Euripides’ Hecuba, audience members have to realize two things. First, the production is composed of beginning theater students who have never been in a stage production before. Second, only well-seasoned actors can pull off boring and verbose Greek plays. The question one must ask, then, is what was the department thinking when it decided to give beginning actors such complex material?

Baker College senior Vicki Romo plays Hecuba, the queen of the defeated Trojans, in Frank McGuiness’ adaptation. The play begins with a prologue by Hecuba’s deceased son Polydorus (Lovett College junior Trevor Pittinger). But Hecuba still has children to mourn, as the Greeks demand her daughter Polyxena (Lovett sophomore Alexandria Anderson) be sacrificed to avenge the slain Achilles. When Odysseus (Baker sophomore Jordan Jaffe) comes to take Polyxena away, Hecuba pleads for her daughter’s life to no avail. Further tragedy strikes the poor Hecuba until she is forced to prepare the funerals for all of her children.

The brochure gives fair warning to the audience: “What you will see can not be judged by the same criteria that you might use for a professional production because many of the students are exploring new territory, and this is their very first time to be involved in a Theatre Program production.” Sure enough, the actors are mediocre at best.

In a telling circumstance, the real star performers of the play are the inanimate objects. The jagged rocks that serve as the backdrop to the tragedy set an overall melancholic tone. Mannequins representing the chorus look intimidating with their masks and robes. Well-timed lighting transitions smoothly from place to place. Well-executed dry ice gives the play a creepy undertone. The costumes are also well-designed, with each character looking the part of a regal Greek. However, that is where substantial praise ends.

Perhaps the most outstanding performance is by Pittinger, in his bookend roles as Polydorus and Polymestor. Pittinger gives excitement to the play as the enraged ghost of Polydorus at the beginning and as the blinded Polymestor at the end. His use of gesture and ability to project puts his performance on par with those of seasoned actors in college theater.

As Hecuba, Romo sticks to one emotion through the entire play: grief on the verge of breaking down into a pool of tears. Romo sounds like she is constantly fake sobbing, without any variance in emotion. Rarely do people cry so much, but perhaps it is because she had to memorize hundreds of lines of translated archaic Greek poetry.

Jaffe is the same whether he is playing Odysseus, Talthybius or Agamemnon. Although he offers more intonation in his voice than Romo, his acting is also a bit lackluster, and he sounds as if he were talking casually to his best friend on the phone.

Anderson is a little better, evoking pity as Polyxena pleads to her mother to let her bravely accept her fate. Furthermore, Anderson is able to differentiate her roles as both a chorus member and Polyxena, successfully transforming into different characters.

Although Hecuba was not the heart-rending performance that it could have been, the actors were not entirely terrible. If nothing else, they put forth a good effort. It could not have been easy for Romo to memorize so much, and it could not have been easy for Jaffe to play the parts of not one but three different characters. The theater brochure recognizes this. But the Theatre Department seems to forget one important thing: The audience — which is paying to see the production — wants to see a play, not a class experiment.

End of article

Back to top