Brightest Young Things

The SCENA Theatre’s production of Steven Berkoff’s GREEK (which runs now through November 27) is a mix of 1980 England dreaming and 500 BC Greek mythologizing that points towards intriguing possibilities.

Steven Berkoff is a giant of English theater.  You know him (I know you do – here’s a picture) from his various Hollywood endeavors including scene-chewing turns in Beverley Hills Cop (Victor Maitland) and Rambo (Colonel Podovsky) – all used to fund his more artistically pure endeavors on stage.  His adaptations are legendary, but GREEK is one of his earliest original works, debuting in England in 1980.

GREEK transposes Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and all the attendant myths and psychological baggage to a 1980 London in disrepair and despair.  It’s not the tourist-friendly metropolis we know, but instead a terrifying nightmare of the Brixton riots, the decrepitude of Tufnell Park, the massive garbage strikes, the Thatcherite morale decay, and the collapsing urban infrastructure.

Within the play, the collapse of London has been caused by the terror of the Sphinx that kills all those that can’t answer her famous riddle, along with a plague brought about by an unresolved case of fratricide and incest.  The beautiful, archaic language and absurd situations of Sophocles’ original are jarringly juxtaposed with modern diction and knowledge of the original (and Freud, etc.) is necessary to follow the action: “We only love so it doesn’t matter mother, mother it doesn’t matter. Why should I tear my eyes out Greek style, why should you hang yourself?”

Oedipus here is recast Eddy (Eric Lucas), a hair-slicked gobby punk kid, tossed out onto the streets by his parents after they hear from an oracle (well, a fortune teller in Blackpool) that Eddy would, one day, kill his father and sleep with his mother.  Berkoff tears into the middle-England sensibility of the parents, reducing them to collages of clichés, cobbled together into self-justifying speeches.  All the actors’ faces painted in a cross between a white mask and a mime’s face paint.  It renders the characters features a bit more inscrutable, forcing the focus on the words – on Berkoff’s magnificent, twisted streams of words.

The rest of the cast –  David Bryan Jackson, brilliant and consistently hilarious as Eddy’s dad; Nanna Invagsson, sensual and scene-stealing as Eddy’s wife; and Danielle Davy, eye-poppingly adaptive as Eddy’s mom and the Sphinx – does a great job, both in their roles, and as the ridiculous, mugging, silent Greek chorus pantomiming in the background to illustrate Eddy’s speeches.  Invagsson delivers one speech in particular that made be squirm and blush, and Davy’s defiant putdown of manhood as the Sphinx is hilarious.  Davy’s delivery is especially strong in comparison to Eddy’s riposte, spilling the balance between the finely-poised script.

The set is bare except a table and chairs, which the characters move and switch to depict the different locales in the play – a kitchen, a café, the fortune-teller’s, the sphinx’s lair, Eddy’s posh flat.  The sound effects include period punk and off stage sound effects augmented by the actors’ voices – a siren, news broadcasts, what have you.  That D.I.Y. aesthetic is quite effective – especially when the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks ring out of the speakers.  Oh, and the words – I can’t even imagine how much of the play is lost on audiences outside England – or DC audiences not steeped in the Young Ones or the Long Good Friday – all the cultural, political, geographic, and musical references strewn throughout the play.

But that’s not this production’s biggest one problem.  It really is the flow of words from our main character. On opening night Lucas had a spot of trouble delivering the lines with the speed and fluency needed to ensure that the full flow between the machinegun cockney shittalk and mellifluous classic phrasing match up.  His delicacy with the latter and hesitancy at the percussive power of the former robs several scenes of their carefully-designed flow.  I found one speech – dated in 1980, presciently describing the gastropub movement that would transform English city life in the 90s’ – quite effective.  But early on, I have a tough time deciding exactly what Eddy’s meant to be doing.

There’s room for improvement – I would be curious to see how much the play improves as Lucas’  delivery rises to the challenge of Berkoff’s challenging sentence structures.  For now, it’s a brilliant concept that doesn’t quite satisfy.

Previously in Play DC:

• 2/22: PlayDC: Peter Pan-The Boy Who Hated Mothers @ H Street Playhouse
• 2/22: PlayDC: Civilization (all you can eat) @ Woolly Mammoth
• 2/17: PlayDC: Landless Theatre's DEVIL BOYS FROM BEYOND @ DCAC
• 2/16: PlayDC: Really Really @ Signature Theatre
• 2/9: PlayDC: ELECTILE DISFUNCTION: The Kinsey Sicks for President @ Theater J
• 2/9: Woolly Mammoth's "Civilization Smackdown" + a Giveaway
• 2/8: PlayDC: Blood Wedding @ Constellation Theatre Company
• 2/1: Play DC: "Red" @ Arena Stage
• 1/31: PLAY DC: "The Gaming Table" @ The Folger Theatre
• 1/30: Play DC: The Elephant Room @ Arena Stage