Lagniappe
Theatre Reviews: 'The Seven'
by David Cuthbert, theater critic, New Orleans Times-Picayune
Friday, 30 January 2004
"Theatre Louisiane has re-surfaced with a Greek drama, The Seven, based on Aeschylus' 'Seven Against Thebes' and Euripedes' 'The Phoenician Women.' Both deal with the Argon army's attack against Thebes to place exiled prince Polynikes on the throne in place of his brother, Eteokles. Both sons of Oedipus seem determined to fulfill the curse that they will 'divide their inheritance by the sword.'
Adapter-director Amy Woodruff uses a film back story and replaces the chorus with Antigone and Ismene, who attempt to reason with their brothers.
The Messenger's role is divvied up among several actors on film, as if being interviewed on CNN. This works fairly well, apart from some accents that bring us thuddingly back home from antiquity. (The pronunciation 'disastuh' comes to mind.) The filmed skirmishes (crudely reminiscent of Orson Welles' battles-on-a-budget in 'Chimes at Midnight') don't come off well at all, though there is a wonderful image of a silhouetted arm holding a spear.
John Tiliakos is commanding physically and vocally as Polynikes, and Don Guillory's Eteokles can summon verbal thunder, too, along with evil-eyed, if-looks-could-kill glances. They fulfill their 'dark destiny' onstage instead of off, in a kind of battle-ballet.
Woodruff's intense Antigone and Joy Begnaud's well-spoken Ismene strike classic poses in Tiliakos' dim, atmospheric lighting. Woodruff's stage costumes and musical excerpts are other assets in this intriguing, if not always satisfying, melange."