CASSANDRA - A UKRAINIAN DRAMA
Credit for all photos: Dasha Tenditna
Is there anything worse than being a prophet who is never believed? This was the fate of Cassandra, the Trojan priestess whose gift for seeing the future was turned into a curse by the gods. One can also argue that Ukraine is the modern Cassandra. For years she warned of the military ambitions of Russia. As a nation, she foresaw the brutal invasion, the rape of her lands. But did the world believe it? No.
These are the chilling parallels in the new translation of an epic poem written in the Ukrainian language in 1907. The poet was Lesia Ukrainka, a remarkable and prescient writer whose work focused on the rights of women, anti-colonialism and the integrity of her native land – then subsumed into the Tsarist empire. She was at the heart of the European modernist movement and a name to be explored, a powerful writer to be discovered.
Cassandra then places the woman at the heart of the Trojan Wars story; we see the siege of Troy, the killing of Hector, the burning of the city and the decoy wooden horse all from her viewpoint. It is a remarkable and chilling lookout position on another brutal war.
Ukrainka’s poetic drama has been translated by Nina Murray and put on stage by Live Canon and the Ukrainian Institute London. They chose for their Cambridge run the Round Church. This was an inspired choice. Yes, the venue is rather echoey, yes the sight lines are not always great, but oh the atmosphere! Specially re-blocked for a theatre-in-the-round space, the church setting with its giant Romanesque columns, gurning gargoyles, and wonderfully evocative but never intrusive sound score by Patrick Stockbridge, all helped to create a gripping, powerful, atmosphere.
Cassandra runs like a Greek play – reports of battles or the slaying of heroes brought by breathless messengers, extending monologues and that dark sense of inevitable tragedy. The six actors play a variety of roles – except one. As Cassandra. Evie Florence captured the audience from her very first entrance to her tragic ending. She seldom left the stage. Her performance was visceral and commanding; the anguish lined on the face of this vilified seer, the inner torment of witnessing the bloody fate of those close to her. And yet, a terrific inner strength – the power to tell the truth whatever the world (aka the doomed Trojans) wanted to hear. I can’t imagine a better portrayal of the tortured telepath.
Florence was well supported by the ensemble cast who rapidly changed their modern dress from princes, to soldiers, spies or enemy Greeks. There was a particularly powerful scene between Cassandra and her twin brother Helenus. Here they discuss the meaning and purpose of truth which in this Trumpian era not to mention the week of the Boris Johnson hearing, could not be more relevant. Joseph Akubeze shone as the angry twin but also as the smarmy King Onomaus who has demanded Cassandra’s hand – and body – and payment for his loyalty to the Trojan cause.
The talented sextet brought a huge amount of clarity and energy to this complex tale and with Helen Eastman’s inspired direction, the whole evening at the Round Church was a deeply moving and thought provoking. There were some theatrical coups too – a lovely scene with a rising and falling moon held aloft by the chorus and the use of the outer circle of the church, the space behind the audience, where the actors were forever running to begin or end a scene. A promenade for the epilogue was a very unexpected move – it symbolised the defeated Trojans captivity to Greece and was done with Shakespearean gravity.
The play is part of the the UK-Ukraine Season of Culture, devised jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute. Their next stop is Oxford. I foresee a wonderful run in the Other Place. I trust that this prophet will be believed.
