23:00, Thu 10th – Sat 12th March 2016 at ADC Theatre
Lent Week 8

"You should be wiser than mortals, being Gods’

In a world at the whim of jealous gods, relentless passions and tongues too quick to fall on mortal curses, Phaedra, wife of Theseus, stands alone and tormented. Mad with love for her chaste stepson and sickened by her own desires, Phaedra struggles to preserve her integrity and resist the fate doled out to her by deities who scorn the humans they deign over, and who are never far away. All the while, her suffering is watched at a distance by mortals drawn instinctively to her distress who, despite themselves, cannot turn their eyes away from the unfolding spectacle.

Euripides’ problematic drama was first performed cf. 428 B.C. The play screams across the space of 2000 years, continuing to unsettle and intrigue modern audiences. What is seen cannot be unseen; what is heard cannot be soon forgotten.