I have come to admire The National for their ability to put on a show with such effort, vigour and production values, that it can be easy to ignore the fact that the play is, quite frankly, crap. These are the reservations I came with when I saw Welcome to Thebes last Wednesday night. After all, it’s a new work, based on other works, which, if Nation is anything to go by, doesn’t bode well.
Welcome to Thebes is a modern retelling of the story of Creon. However, you wouldn’t recognize it because playwright Moira Buffini has replaced Creon with his historically mute wife, Eurydice. She has also planted in some additional characters from the Theban backstory of Oedipus and some post-glory, post-story Theseus to mix it up a bit. Take all this, mix it in a blender and throw it up in contemporary, war-torn Africa and you have Welcome to Thebes. Surprisingly, it’s done quite well. The stories mix well and make an obvious parallel to African/Middle Eastern – American relations, commenting heavily on the notions of war, class and society. Buffini handles it all quite well, with a nice mix of humour and drama, even sneaking in the odd Oedipus joke.
The actors are all commendable, doing a good job with the characters. There are a few exceptions, with some far weaker than others, but the overall quality more than compensates. David Harewood as Theseus, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Eurydice and Jacqueline Defferary as Talthybia are standouts. However, it’s Madeline Appiah as Megaera who stole the show for me. Her intensity, mixed with her brilliant talent for comedy, culminated into one of the most enjoyable and disturbing performances in the show. One interesting casting choice, as pointed out by a fellow blogger, was Alexia Khadime as the surprisingly mute Harmonia, better known recently as the much larger role of Elphaba in Wicked. Sure enough, by the end of the night they made full use of her voice with a few hauntingly beautiful melodies driftig above the action.
The production values, as always with The National, are fantastically high. The set, a crumbling African palace complete with stormy sky, worked beautifully, and the ‘appearance’ of a helicopter was brilliantly achieved, only bettered by Mr Mackintosh in Miss Saigon.
Overall, it was a rather enjoyable evening. The script was in need of slight editing, with the finale running on past the obvious closing point and providing a little too much closure, as pointed out by my theatre partner. Hopefully, considering this was preview week, they’ll work this out and make the relevent editing before it officially opens on the 22nd. Still, Welcome to Thebes is a welcome change from the oh so boring Women Beware Women.
Welcome to Thebes is playing at the Olivier Theatre at The National Theatre until 19 August.
