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Hippolytus
One raging sea-monster, several frenzied horses and two very manipulative goddesses featured in the brilliant three-night production of Euripides’ Hippolytus, as directed by OC Guy Woolf (TL 2009) last term. The play provided a sumptuous culmination to a richly varied Classics Week – which also included a lecture from Dr Nick Lowe of Royal Holloway on Homer, a talk by Dr Laura Swift of Worcester College, Oxford on the role of women in Greek drama, a Roman banquet and screenings of ‘300’.
The play explores the monumental themes of love, freedom and forgiveness. Guy’s enthusiasm for its haunting analysis of human life, played out beneath the critical and domineering gaze of the gods ensured that the audience were treated to an evening of intense and deeply moving drama.
Hippolytus is a young man (played with passion and nuanced understanding of the text by Arthur Graham-Dixon) obsessed with Artemis, the goddess of hunting and chastity – a terrifyingly imperious Kathryn Kramer. But on the other side of the stage looms Aphrodite, goddess of love who, feeling mistreated and vindictive, begins the play with a baleful exposition of how she intends to ruin Hippolytus – and his whole household in his wake. As the story unfolded, we were treated to standout performances from Tom Wright, playing Hippolytus’ father Theseus, and Charlotte Holtum, as Phaedra, who is infected with love for her step-son Hippolytus; as well as superbly atmospheric sound and set design. VLS, photos by Nicky Collins
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