Following his marathon Shakespeare mashups ‘Roman Tragedies’ and ‘Kings of War’, the great Belgium director – and Barbican regular – Ivo van Hove returns with his Internationaal Theater Amsterdam company to do the same for the great Greek Tragedies. ‘Age of Rage’ blends together elements of Euripides and Aeschylus’s ‘Iphigenia in Aulis’, ‘The Trojan Women’, ‘Hecuba’, ‘Agamemnon’, ‘Electra’ and ‘Orestes’ in order to tell the story of the Trojan War and its aftermath in a relatively snappy three hours and 45 minutes. It’s stacked with familiar Van. Hove associates, including design by Jan Versweyveld and the mighty Hans Kesting as Agamemnon. But the production is distinguished by choreography from Wim Vandekeybus and live music from ensemble BL!NDMAN [drums] – by all accounts it’s extremely loud, and earplugs will be offered to audience members.
Performed in Dutch with English surtitles.