Our Ajax, Southwark Playhouse - theatre review

Joe Dixon’s performance is the beating heart of David Mercatali’s production of this new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, while Gemma Chan brings an elegant guile to the vindictive goddess Athena
11 November 2013

Sophocles's Ajax is a tragic vision of fear, suffering and dishonour, the inspiration for Timberlake Wertenbaker’s new play focusing on the hardships of modern war. Her updated Ajax is a brawny soldier who loses out (to Odysseus) on promotion and slides towards mental breakdown.

Joe Dixon’s performance is the beating heart of David Mercatali’s production. There are moments of frenzy and passionate rhetoric as this flawed warrior struggles to deal with being deprived of the recognition that his past heroism deserves.

Gemma Chan brings an elegant guile to the vindictive goddess Athena, while Adam Riches is an understated Odysseus. Frances Ashman convinces as Ajax’s questioning concubine Tecmessa. In the final third, William Postlethwaite impresses as Teucer, who defends his brother Ajax’s right to a decent burial. Mining the past has often allowed Wertenbaker to write obliquely about the present. Here the modern idiom and setting — bits about AK-47s and Ajax being “a pain in the ass” — don’t always sit comfortably with the Greek elements. The results are uneven, though still meaty.

Until Nov 30 (020 7407 0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk)

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