13/08/24

theSpaceTriplex (Big), Edinburgh

In the rush and buzz of the Fringe, it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are plenty of amateur productions here, put together and performed by dedicated teams of young (and sometimes old) creatives. One of the best places to see these offerings is at theSpaceTriplex, a venue that offers ‘affordable’ rooms for such projects.

Something about the premise of My Blood captures my attention. A new play based upon Aeschylus’ Oresteia? That would be an ambitious project for a seasoned professional company, so I’m interested to see what this team from Oxford has come up with.

Playwright Leelou Lapteva has clunningly reimagined the old saga as a psychological thriller, set in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. In this version of the story, King Agamemnon becomes Adam Atreides (Gilles McDonald), the CEO of a major bank and the father of Oliver (George Loynes) and Chloe (Victoria Kinne). He’s married to the vitriolic Sandra (Kelsey DeJesus, clearly having a field day with her expletive-littered lines).

But a mysterious cabal has Adam in its grasp and it soon becomes apparent that powerful forces are at work on him, forcing him to go to unspeakable lengths in order to ensure that the Atreides dynasty will survive the financial meltdown and continue to prosper.

But such an outcome comes at a hard price.

I’m impressed by Lapteva’s intriguing concept and there’s some excellent writing here. What’s more, the acting – especially from the sibling duo of Loynes and Kinne – is also pretty impressive, though it’s fair to say that every member of the seven-strong cast gives it their all. And if some of the dialogue occasionally feels a little histrionic… well, look at the source material.

What I’m less keen on in this production is the over-dependence on props. The impetus of the play keeps getting slowed down as the actors are obliged to lug items of furniture back and forth across the stage and there are too many scenes where characters are chair-bound, looking on silently while others speak their lines. Some polystyrene gravestones also seem like an unnecessary encumbrance.

I’d love to see this production stripped back, freed from the shackles of those pesky props, the actors able to prowl the stage as they perform. And could some of the developments in the story be shown through movement rather than dialogue (for example the masked sequence that Oliver describes)?

My Blood is an impressive production, a fresh interpretation of a classic piece of theatre that has plenty of appeal for a modern audience.

3.5 stars

Philip Caveney