Phèdre on film

By Tracy

Yesterday I went with a friend to see the broadcast of Racine's Phèdre (staged at the English National Theatre in London) at Luna Cinema in Leederville. It wasn't the original French text, which is in rhyming alexandrines, but the modern free-verse translation by Ted Hughes.

It was a strange experience because, as the director pointed out in an introductory filmed segment, it was really an experiment -- elsewhere in the world, beamed live as it was performed (Australia had the delayed version) -- all the high-definition detail of film, using multiple cameras, that you wouldn't get if you were in the actual theatre, but essentially a stage performance (actors were encouraged to play to the immediate audience, not the larger, unseen one...).

Despite some of the negative reviews I'd seen on the net beforehand, the cast were very good. I'm not a fan of Helen Mirren, but she suited this Phèdre right down to the ground -- perhaps those critics who squirmed didn't fully realise that was what they were meant to do. (Of course, they may have been reviewing other performances of the same show.)

I had not read the Hughes translation before seeing the play/film. His text seemed to match the power of Racine's, though often so apparently "natural" as to sound like normal speech. The high points and moments of crisis that are so memorable in the original were not lost here. The whole thing was what (post-Greek, neo-classical, reinterpreted) tragedy should be -- compelling and yet unbearable to watch. It took a while to come back to earth afterwards.

My only complaint was that the Luna people so strangely kept the long preamble, which in the live broadcasts would have filled in the real-time before the curtain went up. Since ours was delayed, there was no need for all those repeating still slides and indeed, it's the only time I've heard a cinema audience do the slow-clap with impatience! It meant the actual film started a long time after the stated 1pm.

The second showing of this performance was today (Sunday), but there is a whole series of plays to come in similar fashion, which you can read about here. Next up is All's Well that Ends Well, in October.