It’s a manifesto, how can it not be. For her first production as the first female Director of the National Theatre, and first of colour, Indhu Rubasingham throws open the doors of the Olivier with an Ancient Greek tragedy about the god of theatre, male hubris and a group of radical women claiming their power.
If it were a triumph, life would be easier; the National in safe hands, theatre saved. If it were a dud everyone could cluck and crow. Instead it’s both, and also everything in between. Refugees, feminism, gender, sexuality, dictators, set to rap and dance…this is a production of wild mood swings, mediated through a production whose beauty often outstrips its substance.
