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Beautiful Evil Things
The Tobacco Factory
CO-CREATOR and solo performer Deborah Pugh illuminates the empty, dark stage with her 75-minute account of the Trojan Wars from the perspective of the petrifying gorgon Medusa. The riveting performance focuses on the roles of three women, enabling the female-centric narrative to provide a fresh reassessment of events.
Contextualising the three women with their backstories and ultimate fates woven into the decade-long war, Pugh's narrator is no longer seen as the ultimate horror but as one of three gorgon sisters tasked with being eternal record keepers, the guardians of truth.
Her refusal to edit their account for Zeus's sake leads to her transformation and ultimate brutalisation. This struggle for truth in a world dominated by males and their egos lies at the heart of this taut production.
As Medusa's still cognisant head strapped to Athena's shield, Pugh creates a real physical sense of the bodiless character as she impotently watches events unfold with the women being ignored, violated and killed. Transforming to Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, she seems to grow in stature, physically dominating the stage as she battles and slays Achilles, only to have him resurrected by Zeus, “that renowned misogynist and lover of Greek boys.”
The two other women whose stories are normally told from a male viewpoint are Cassandra, cursed to prophesise the future but never to be believed, and Clytemnestra, whose previous treatment by her husband Agamemnon makes his murder almost inevitable. Their tragic inability to make themselves heard and pitiless male treatment has undeniable contemporary relevance.
Pugh occasionally steps outside the coiled frame of her stage to pass acerbic comments on the action or to announce a new chapter in her account. For the rest, she is engulfed in Ali Hunter's hauntingly atmospheric lighting design and Sam Halmarack's electronic soundscape.
Ad-Infinitum director George Mann has blended all the elements of this production with real style and skill to make Pugh's dynamic performance a fascinating retelling and re-evaluation of the Greek epic with startling modern relevance.
On tour until November 18 2022, booking: ad-infinitum.org
