At: Maidment Studio, Auckland
Review: Susan Budd
Written in the 1960s by James K Baxter, The Sore-Footed Man is an odd hybrid in which he explores the conflict between Philoctetes, a home-spun philosopher, and Odysseus, a man of the world in every sense of the word.
The setting is that of Sophocles' epic - an island on which Philoctetes has been marooned for 10 years - at the time of the Trojan War. The dialogue, however, is deliberately anachronistic, bringing its concerns to the time of the war in Vietnam.
Despite a very few well-choreographed scenes of fights and drunken revelry, there is little action. As with most Greek drama, matters of consequence such as battles and lovemaking occur off stage.
How these men do talk, and though it is fascinating at times there is a distinct aura of late-night intellectual conversations oiled with rough red wine.
Philoctetes, apart from his plight, has drawn the losing card from the beginning. As well as having a fatal flaw of despising his wife, a perfectly pleasant if impatient woman, he is somewhat simple-minded and a crashing bore.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Odysseus, a consummate politician and philanderer - a combination with deep resonance just now - has most of the dialogue and all the best lines.
Evil is always so much more seductive than virtue and the Greek general, an arch-manipulator who lies and cheats with Machiavellian skill and ruthlessness, carries the day and the play.
Vadim Ledogorov draws performances of striking sincerity from his cast and imbues the play with archaic beauty, assisted by John Parker's simple and striking set of rigging and stones.
Emily Regtien as Eunoe performs a sensuous, writhing, ritual dance in the opening and closing scenes to a rhythmic drum beat. It lends a sense of feminine mystery to a play that is otherwise resolutely masculine in its concerns and approach.
Patrick Wilson plays Odysseus with intelligence and gravitas, though he has yet to find the mischief that underlies his actions.
<i>Performance:</i> The Sore-footed Man
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