Between Euripides and Racine, there is Seneca. The latter’s Phèdre is an essential piece between Greek theater and its modern variants; it is the Latin version. The Stoic Seneca represented a Phaedra more complex than that of Euripides and more culpable than that of Racine who found some excuses for it including that of an “inhuman heredity”. Theseus loves Phèdre (it’s reciprocal), but Phèdre confesses his illegitimate love for Hippolyte to his nurse and she tries in vain to dissuade him. Phèdre doesn’t care.
After all, Theseus – father of Hippolyte, child of a first marriage to an Amazon – is unfaithful and has gone nowhere. A trip to the dead? Phèdre only thinks of Hippolyte, her stepson, who rejects her since, firstly, he does not like women and, secondly, he adores his father. Moreover, what he prefers are nature, hunting, freedom. Phèdre takes the fact of being rejected by Hippolyte very badly and her revenge will be terrible: she accuses him of having wanted to rape her. Theseus learns of this, curses his son and condemns him to a horrible death. Seized with remorse, Phèdre reveals Hippolyte’s innocence and kills herself over his corpse.
Also read Phèdre, or love and all its furies
Georges Lavaudant is a wise director; he doesn’t get lost in decorum. His work does not date. On the stage of the Athénée, he shows us a sublime Phaedra by Seneca. A little over an hour, intense, concentrated, without any blunders. Here he is, Hippolyte played by Maxime Taffanel; it looks like this beautiful specimen straight from the Caryatid Room of the Louvre. A true ancient statue. A Praxiteles. This ephebe is also an excellent actor: his lyrical monody at the beginning puts us in the swing of things.
In the distance, we hear the sounds of the forest. They are enough to mentally represent a sylvan atmosphere. The story of passion can begin. On a white screen backdrop, giant Chinese shadows pass, dance or stare. So these deer antlers. Georges Lavaudant is a master of lighting. Light is his job. He knows how to lighten the darkest rooms.
Also read Seneca’s Phaedra of Gold and Rage
Here is Phèdre (Astrid Bas) and the messenger (Mathurin Voltz). The “heroine” is lying on a deck chair. Dressed in a short white satin tunic, hair gathered in a bun. The nanny, black dress, is played by Bénédicte Guilbert. These two actresses are admirable, they echo each other in the inevitable drama to come. They know how to play the tension without overdoing it in the declamation. Appears, in his long dark cloak, Theseus, emerging from who knows what darkness.
He threatens the nurse and declaims his sentence. These words from the chorus then appear on the screen: “Oh Nature, immense family of gods! You fiery guide of Olympus, engine of the scattered stars, you carry away the wandering stars, you make the poles turn. » Aurélien Recoing is Theseus. His slow, deep demiurge voice creates an effect and fright. And the pure Hippolyte who hates power and money will pay for his false attempted rape.
From this play, we will remember the frugal beauty of the staging and the exceptional acuity of the actors, all in their inner forum. Thanks to Frédéric Boyer’s new translation, this Phèdre – one of the saddest stories in all of mythology – becomes very intelligible and tells us again that ancient theater was indeed a popular art.
Phèdre, at the Théâtre de l’Athénée (Paris 9th), until October 22. Such. : 01 53 05 19 19. www.athenee-theatre.com
