FEDRA: QUEEN OF HAITI
World Premiere
At
Lookingglass Theatre
(Lookingglass Theatre Website)
Water Tower Water Works
821 N. Michigan Avenue at Pearson
Chicago, Illinois 60611
312.337.0665

October 11 to November 15, 2009

J. Nicole Brooks: Writer
Laura Eason: Director

David Catlin: Artistic Director
Rachel E. Kraft: Executive Director
Philip R. Smith: Producing Artistic Director
Heidi Stillman: Artistic Director of New Work

Meghan Raham: Scenic Design
Allison Siple: Costume Design
Christine Binder: Lighting Design
Kevin O’Donnell: Composition
Joshua Horvath: Sound Design
Chelsea Meyers: Properties Design
Matthew Hawkins: Fight Choreography
Alexandra Blunt: Director of Production
Jonathan Templeton: Production Stage Manager
Cathy Taylor: Public Relations

Cast
J. Nicole Brooks: Fedra
Anthony Fleming III: Hippolytus
Lauren Hirte: Panope
Sharina Martin: Aricia
Morocco Omari: Theseus
Tamberla Perry: Afrodite/Ismene
Michael Salina: Theramenes
Lisa Tejero: Enone

Susan Weinrebe
October 10, 2009

Things are heating up in Haiti. The king’s plane has presumably crashed with the ruler on board. Rebels are fomenting unrest. There are plots in the palace. And, oh yes, the queen lusts after her stepson. And there’s worse to come in Fedra: Queen of Haiti, Lookingglass Theatre’s latest intriguing revival of a classic story.

Just as Shakespearian plays are often interpreted to allow every possible permutation of place, time and dress, so J. Nicole Brooks has adapted the Greek myth Phaedra to a modern setting in Haiti. Playing the part of Fedra, she pulls out all the theatrical stops as a conflicted queen who is rapidly losing her sanity thanks to the unhealthy coping combination of alcohol, drugs, and cutting herself. And that’s not even taking into account the goddess, ‘Afrodite,’ who is out to get her.

Ms. Brooks lets her insane and angry mad scenes rip with abandon, whether she is attempting or resisting seduction or wrestling for her life. In her hugely juicy role as a ruler gone wrong, she brings wry sarcastic humor to her dire situation as she portrays a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Lisa Tejero’s characterization of Enone, the courtier shoring up her weak queen, creates a template for sycophants everywhere. In the frenetically calculating role of Fedra’s confidante and major domo, this venerable and versatile actor silkily demonstrates how corrupting the whiff of power can be.

Two beautiful actors, beautifully paired in their roles, Anthony Fleming III, as Hippolytus (“Call me Hip”), and Sharina Martin, in the part of Aricia, completely convince, as the doomed childhood friends and lovers. Fleming’s earnest idealism and longing for Aricia, imprisoned by his father since she was eight years old, underscores the hope and hopelessness of their plight. This shining duo brought humor, chemistry and pathos to their sparring dialogue, not unlike Tracy and Hepburn in their time, and made us wish, against all evidence of Greek mythology, to the contrary, that they at least would have a glad end.

Tamberla Perry comes as close to looking like a goddess as one is likely to see in this earthly realm. In her dual part as the angry deity, Afrodite, and as Aricia’s street tough side kick, Ismene, she brings seductive menace and sass respectively to her roles. Willowy and graceful, Ms. Perry imbues her slightest movement with innuendo. When Afrodite, the goddess in the red dress and humungous natural do, slides a sinuous arm to the top of a door frame, it bodes nothing good for the pitiful mortal, whom she is contemplating. As the wise-cracking friend in her torn skinny jeans, flouncy frou-frou skirt, and red-streaked hair, her comically timed attitude made me wish she’d get a spin off to her own myth.

The Lookingglass Theatre is theater in the square; the audience flanks the floor-level stage on three sides. Patrons sit close enough to the action that they must sometimes mind their feet, as the actors enter, exit, and work every inch of space available. It’s always a treat to see how Meghan Raham, as the Scenic Designer, and the rest of Artistic Director, David Catlin’s team use the seemingly limited area.

The back wall and a second level promenade above the wall are lighted and painted to suggest sunny skies and the heavenly reaches from which Afrodite, goddess of love, watches and plots against the mortals. Soaring columns reference Greek architecture, while the two pillars at the front of the stage are present, but their middles cut out to allow for clean sight lines. A small sunken pool intriguingly placed in one corner of the stage awaits use – just as a knife or gun introduced early in a play will eventually find its way into the plot.

J. Nicole Brooks’ Fedra reminds us of the timeless convention that those “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Madness plus lust plus power gives this tropically re-imagined tale the classic formula for evoking pity from the audience, as we observe the foolish mortals hurtling towards their fates.

Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Courtesy of SEAN WILLIAMS

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Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Courtesy of SEAN WILLIAMS

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Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Courtesy of SEAN WILLIAMS

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Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Courtesy of SEAN WILLIAMS

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Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Courtesy of SEAN WILLIAMS

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For more information, contact Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower at zlokower@bestweb.net