"A classic tale of forbidden love set in the ruins of a 15th Century castle, Phaedre is more than just theatre - it's an experience, and an inspired one at that." Three Weeks *****, shortlisted for an Editors Award

Historic Scotland invited Offstage Theatre to stage their radical reworking of Racine's 'Phaedre' in the majestic ruins of Craigmillar Castle as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007. Performed each night at sun down, the fifteen-strong cast guided disquieted audiences through the towers, dungeons and courtyards of Craigmillar Castle.
     
   

Adapting 'Phaedre' for the specific environment of Craigmillar was the leading principle behind this production. Throughout the creative process the castle on the outskirts on Edinburgh, a city often described as 'fair Athens of the North', provided the perfect labyrinthine venue for a Greek myth orignially imagined in a 'vaulted palace' by Racine. After approaching the imposing gates of the castle surrounded by a spectacular view of rolling hills that reached to the sea, audiences were led through a series of open-air courtyards, underground chambers, and ruined turrets as the play unfolded. The promenade performance combined local legend with classical myth to create an explosive combination of unrequited lust, witchcraft and divine vengence, trapped in Craigmillar's ageing battlements.

"Brown makes great use of a number of imposing, and slightly spooky, locations within the ruin. As they line the staircases between scenes the female chorus add to the play's tension with their haunting songs and chants." Edinburgh Evening News
Photograph: Siret Paju
Sensitive to the fact that we were a London-based theatre company inhabiting a venue not usually involved in the festival, we established close links with the Craigmillar community and fully incorporated local myth and history in the piece. Local Castleview Primary School children designed pillows inspired by a workshop with storyteller Heather Henderson, providing imaginative seating for audiences in the Great Hall. The stories, myths, songs and characters we discovered during discussions with Craigmaillar residents were evident in the production, from Aricia's white garb, inspired by the tale of the ghostly 'white woman' said to haunt the castle's grounds, to the installation of a cement male torso harking back to the Earl of Mar buried alive in the walls. The description of Neptune's monster drew on the language which is popularly used to describe the monster of Loch Ness, while the decision to cast two identical twins as Panope not only challenged the audience's trust in their guide but also complemented the old Scottish (and Ancient Greek) belief that multiple births were often the harbingers of bad news. 'Phaedre' also premiered original choral music by composer Danny Saleeb sung by an omnipresent female chorus, and local folk songs.    
 

From the outset we wanted the production to be tribal. This affected creative choices such as making captive Aricia and Ismene Scottish and the bellicose Greek males English - a decision cemented by a very positive article in the Edinburgh Evening News which heralded our fringe arrival as 'an invasion'. An impulsive, violent and womanising Henry VIII was the ideal model for our rash, philandering Theseus, while the mid-1500s supplied an era that was becoming increasingly fearful of witchcraft, complementing the themes of suspicion and magic so prevalent in the text. The Greek Gods of Racine's original text were translated into a Christian world in which the rhetoric of justice and evil resonated with modern day preoccupations with notions of civilisation. In this setting, Phaedre was a Christian convert from a West African background struggling with her desire to assimilate into her new Christian world whilst retaining her Yoruba religious beliefs that the goddess Iya Aje could cure or cause retributive justice to befall anyone who disrespects women and motherhood. The combination of these artistic choices and the dramatic setting of the castle ruins at sunset created an atmospheric, powerful and memorable production that embodied:
   
 
"All the archetypal appeal of the Greeks, epic humanness of Shakespeare and enough Gallic melodrama to fill a dozen castles." The Stage
  
 

THE COMPANY

ARICIA Alison O'Donnell CHORUS Chandrika Chevli, Beth Cooper, Cristina Crespo, Heather Saunders, Tara Siddall, Adrienne Zitt HIPPOLYTUS Henry Maynard ISMENE Emma King OENONE Fiona Watson PANOPE Alana and Lisa MacFarlane PHAEDRE Cleo Sylvestre THERAMENES Graham Elwell THESEUS Seamus Newham

DIRECTOR/ADAPTER Cressida Brown ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Siret Paju PRODUCER/PRESS Ella Hickson PRODUCER Ellen McDougall COMPOSER Daniel Saleeb TRANSLATOR Daniel Curshen INSTALLATION DESIGNER Alex Stone SOUND DIRECTOR Philip Nottingham COSTUME DESIGNER Stella Scott COSTUME MAKER Jenny Etheridge COSTUME CONSTRUCTORS Katy Adeney, Emma Brierley, Becky Hayes, Hannah McMahon-Major, Jade Morris, Asa Norling, Rachel Young MOVEMENT DIRECTOR Zoe Cobb RESEARCHER/DESIGN ASSISTANT Daniel King DRAGON MAKERS Emma Brierley, Asa Norling MODELBOX MAKER Andrew Robinson COMMUNITY DESIGNER Janis Hart FIGHT DIRECTOR Brent Yount FLYER DESIGN Chris Perkin

    
     
   
All photographs: Philip Nottingham
               
  'Phaedre' was supported by:  
               

www.parclife.co.uk
www.oldvictheatre.com