Joanne Hartstone and Hector Macpherson Brown. A Jethro Compton Production. Noel Lothian Hall (the old tram barn) - Adelaide Botanic Garden. 14 Feb 2016
The bunker crew were here with their trilogy of Agamemnon, Macbeth and Morgana in 2014 and scooped up a BankSA Award for the latter. Back then, I gave Macbeth a fulsome review, and as the others were picked up by other reviewers, I, heaven forbid, actually had to buy a ticket to see Morgana. I simply couldn't fit in Agamemnon, so I'm very happy about this reprise season.
Writer James Wilkes presses all my buttons by setting adaptations of these classical works in a World War I bunker. The audience creeps into a dark and cramped, pseudo-smoke-filled, pseudo-underground shelter on the Western Front. You are pleasingly trapped for a sensoround experience as the light of day is extinguished upon the closing of the wooden door. Ka-boom! Rat-tat-tat! There is a war going on outside. Inside, a metre in front of you, the action is immediate and intense.
For those who have lost the plot since high school, Aeschylus tells of the agon (contest or struggle) between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon, you surely recall, was the King of Argos, and returned from the Trojan War to his wife, Clytemnestra, with the former slave of the Trojan king, Priam, as his concubine. Not a good homecoming. Wilkes captures the narrative arc with dramatic situations and personae compatible with the times and makes the story his own. Deftly switching between the front and the home front, the heart-breaking realities of wartime domesticity are played out with palpitating intrigue.
It's early days, but as in 2014, I'm sure a Bunker Trilogy show will be a highlight of my Fringe. The acting is superb, the story is fascinating, and the production values are completely encompassing. I have been to the Western Front and toured the relicts there, and director and designer Jethro Compton has nailed it. Bravo! Your eyes will widen in horror at certain times (I'm not even speaking of the trench warfare) and you and your companion will be stirred to a debate about duty to home and duty to country.
PS It's great to see a Fringe drama with more than one actor, and four is a crowd in the confined theatrical space. It's wincingly realistic, except for the appallingly insufficient first aid that is practiced.
David Grybowski
When: 12 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Noel Lothian Hall (the old tram barn) - Adelaide Botanic Garden
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
