Prometheus – the immortal Titan imprisoned by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods to give to mankind – succeeds or fails in Aeschylus’s tragedy depending on who plays him. When handled badly, it can be a dramatically static hour of someone chained to a rock giving detailed travel directions to a passing woman.
Thankfully, this production has talented younger actor Henry Regan in the role, exposing Prometheus’s every nerve in a performance that bristles with torment and pride. He spits out Paul Elmer More’s sinewy translation with agonised venom.
Prometheus’s tortured tale is a salutary one of a despotic regime – Zeus’s reign over creation – birthed in betrayal and maintained through terror. The contemporary resonance of this is all the stronger for Regan’s (ironically) very human portrayal of the Titan’s abandonment, accompanied by Annelie Nederberg’s jangling sound design.
Overall, Cieranne Kennedy Bell’s production is solid, wisely not overreaching itself in the White Bear’s small space – although it suffers, particularly at first, from an excess of striding-and-pointing acting from the various gods who come to judge or sympathise with Prometheus.
But while some elements – like an irritatingly stagey Chorus – fall flat, Christie Banks makes a strong impression as Io, the human object of Zeus’s unwanted affections, and Chris Walters is great as a sly, menacing Hermes seeking to curry favour with the current rulers of Olympus.
By Tom Wicker