A new version of Sophocles' Philoctetes
The Yard Theatre, November-December 2014
Joshua Miles as Neo and Daniel Millar as Philoctetes. Photo: Bronwen Sharp
Director and Writer: Jeff James
Designer: Alex Lowde
Lighting Designer: Hansjorg Schmidt
Sound Designer: Jon McLeod
Assistant Director: Jasmine Woodcock-Stewart
Cast:
Joshua Miles
Daniel Millar
Rosie Thompson
Produced by Jessica Campbell for DEM Productions.
Off West End Awards 2015
Finalist for Best Director Award
Nominated for Best Lighting Design Award (Hansjorg Schmidt)
Nominated for Best Actor Award (Daniel Millar)
Evening Standard - Fiona Montford
It's an audacious move to present a modern reworking of Sophocles’s Philoctetes (409BC), especially given that a large majority of any audience are likely to have no idea of the original story and thus the significant deviations therefrom. Adaptor/director Jeff James tackles the task with brio — and manages to involve a lot of treacle in the end product.... James has realigned the play as a taut three-hander — no wafty philosophising from a Greek chorus — with the actors dressed in Nike sportswear and Odysseus recast as a tough-talking woman.
Exeunt - James Macnamara
★★★★
Director and adapter Jeff James and his production team, through some striking aesthetic choices, have created a fairly avant-garde re-imagining of the myth. Alex Lowde’s set design reminds me of Joseph Beuys. The textured yellow sheet metal floor (a permanent feature? I’m not sure) is a curiosity in itself. On it sit bath tubs and buckets full of treacle, two three-bar heaters and some plastic model vultures, making it feel like an unnerving piece of installation art. Hansjörg Schmidt’s lighting is occasionally baffling (is it depicting the changing times of day and night?) but it is remarkable, and uncomfortably effective when it needs to be. Carefully controlled microphone feedback adds to this sense of unease....This production is impressively academic, but its intelligent idiosyncrasy will also appeal to newcomers. Radical without being obscure, contemporary without being topical, Stink Foot is an excellent example of how the problems of ancient drama continue to be used in the creation of rich and exciting theatrical experiences.
Time Out - Natasha Triply
If you decide to sit on the front row for ‘Stink Foot’, Jeff James’s reworking of Sophocles’s ‘Philoctetes’, you’ll find yourself provided with protective plastic sheeting. You’d would be wise to use it, too, as things are liable to get a little sticky. James’s production is saturated in treacle. Yep, actual treacle. There’s a bathtub full of the stuff on stage and Tate & Lyle even get a thank you in the programme.
Synonyms for Churlish review - Megan Vaughan
...Shiny treacle pooling and glistening in the different beams of light that have been shifted about. And because The Yard is fucking freeee-eeeezing they’ve got these two orange heaters onstage that make a gorgeous glow too. Lovely..... So they get the bow and they leave the poor guy slumped in the corner with the lights going out all around him (I love the lighting in this show too fucking much, seriously), crying about how he won’t be able to eat because his magic bow killed goats and vultures for him and now he’s gonna waste away with his gangrene and the goats and vultures will eat him. I genuinely thought it might end there for a minute or two. The timing of it is just right. He whimpers in the corner just long enough for you to think “Shit man, this is totally why they call these things tragedies.” I was proper gutted, genuinely. But then! Hooray! The Sheffield boy-god has a conscience!....At the end there’s a brilliant, brilliant surprise, and a brilliant final beat that - again - is timed just right. But I wouldn’t want to spoil that moment for you with any more of this comprehensive and considered theatre criticism.
Rosie Thompson as Odysseus. Photo: Bronwen Sharp.
Joshua Miles as Neo and Daniel Millar as Philoctetes. Photo: Bronwen Sharp
Rosie Thompson as Odysseus, Daniel Millar as Philoctetes and Joshua Miles as Neo. Photo: Bronwen Sharp.
Joshua Miles as Neo and Daniel Millar as Philoctetes. Photo: Bronwen Sharp
Daniel Millar as Philoctetes and Joshua Miles as Neo. Photo: Bronwen Sharp.
Daniel Millar as Philoctetes. Photo: Bronwen Sharp.
Daniel Millar as Philoctetes and Joshua Miles as Neo. Photo: Bronwen Sharp.