Greek - Garrick Theatre - 27/02/08 by Julia Taylor

I doubt if anyone who sees Greek at the Garrick’s Lauriston Studio Theatre will walk away without feeling offended. The foul language is overpowering and the play features purposeless murder and incest, not to mention vomit, faeces, and explicit descriptions of sexual activity.

Steven Berkoff transfers the ancient “Oedipus” to a 1980s, Thatcher-dominated London. – and gets political digs in along the way including, wait for it, a diatribe about unhealthy food. And this was twenty years ago! The dustman’s strike provokes the remark that ‘This sceptic isle” is in a state of plague. I presume he is getting at moral as well as physical decay. But didn’t that happen in the 1970s?

Oedipus becomes Eddie a cockney rogue brought up by foster parents after his mother believes he has drowned. To add to the eccentricity, the writer has given the actors white, clown-like faces which make it difficult to interpret their expressions and turns them into caricatures.

They overcome this by the expression in their voices as they speak their, sometimes long, soliloquies and duologues. Just like the original, ‘Greek’ penetrates the sinister fantasies lying deep in the human mind. If you can stomach it, you might find the play, despite its connotations, occasionally quite funny.

Eddy’s adoptive parents are particularly amusing. Cockney to the core, they sing, or try to “We’ll meet Again and “Underneath the Arches” They are patriotic admirers of the Royal Family. But they are never allowed to get away with their ideas. For their adopted son despises them.

And the sinister conclusion reveals that, as predicted by a clairvoyant, Eddy murders his father and ‘bunks up” with his mum – but not in the way the audience expect.

Andrew Higson tackles the lengthy role of Eddy unflinchingly and with great stage presence. His many expletives are occasionally laced with Shakespearian-like poetic phrases but Berkoff never lets us escape the filth altogether. Andrew’s performance is, nevertheless, remarkable.

Ali Davenport, who also plays Eddy’s sister, comes into her own in the role of his wife. I like the way she philosophises about her material possessions transforming every day goods such as videos into metaphorical works of art.

Deborah Grace is good as Eddy’s housewife mum but she is even better as the Sphinx which miraculously appears in London to praise the fair sex and despise men. Talented Bryn Thomas switches from dad to the doomed manager of the café with alacrity.

The Garrick are brave to put on this play. They would never get away with it in the main theatre but it is appropriate that their ‘fringe’ studio should be used for more adventurous theatre. ‘Greek’ is not for the fastidious, but if you have an enquiring mind, try it. You might find yourself in a perverse way, enjoying it.

However, I am not a fan of Berkoff. He could perfectly well make his points without the use of shocking and obnoxious language. The stars I award are for the staging, presentation and superb acting, not to mention John Cunningham’s direction, but definitely not for the writing.