Rome might have teemed with power-crazed emperors but if there is one most famed for his despotism it is Nero. Jean Racine’s 1669 play is a study of this tyrant but it comes at its subject matter at a slant – through the story of Britannicus, his stepbrother and rightful heir to the throne, who was poisoned. It is clear at the outset that Nero’s mother, Agrippina, is the kingmaker of this court but the drama’s trajectory shows her losing her hold over the once virtuous Nero. “Bored with being loved, he wants to be feared,” she says.
Atri Banerjee’s thrilling production brings this Roman family into a modern-day court and shows us how old stories can be made terrifically new, with enough fearless imagination. Adapted and translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker, the play’s 17th-century language is exquisitely updated and has a crystalline, lucid quality.
