@ Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 14 May 2016
The Iliad, Mark Thomson’s final play as Artistic Director of the Lyceum is a bold, colourful and highly ambitious production. Written by Chris Hannan – who, as Thomson notes, was the first writer he approached when he took the helm at the Lyceum 13 years ago – this swansong makes powerful allusions to our current political climate.
Take the very beginning, when the cast briefly appear like refugees, assembled in mismatching clothes and lifejackets, each character strewn across Karen Tennant’s shattered and broken set; the feeling of displacement and loss is all too obvious.
This is then immediately contrasted by the sight of the goddess Hera (Emmanuella Cole), a devious, bitter, shapeshifting being, hell bent on revenge, flanked by her playboy husband Zeus (Richard Conlon), an oversexed and amoral spouse, who just wants to have a good time.
In Hannan’s script, Achilles (Ben Turner) is battle worn and broken hearted, having lost his partner, Briseis (Amiera Darwish) to Agamemnon (Ron Donachie, who, in a piece of inspired casting, also doubles as the besieged King Priam). Reluctant to fight, and cobbled by grief, Achilles becomes a pawn as the Gods above and the humans below attempt to bring the war to an end.
Turner excels as the doomed and conflicted warrior, while Cole sizzles with pure feminine rage and delivers some of Hannan’s wittiest lines, but what makes this play so interesting is the similarities between the mortals below and the gods above. While there is never any question of who is in charge, both parties are shown to be as fallible, as irrational and stubborn as the other. In war, it would seem, Gods and men are finally equal, and will make the same mistakes time and time again.
All in all, a fitting end to Thomson’s reign, The Iliad is a grand production that reminds us that the war has a very real, and very human cost.