Death and incest demand passion

PHAEDRA
Donmar Wharehouse

I REMEMBER seeing Paul Nicholls in a downmarket nightclub about 10 years ago. As the tortured teen Joe Wicks in the BBC soap Eastenders and sporting a stylish bowl hairdo – as was the fashion of the time – Nicholls had a gaggle of girls, some of whom were supposed to be talking to me, swooning at his feet.
A decade on, I was expecting to find Mr Nicholls at the centre of another, more poetic, fable of lust, rejection and misdirected love – as Hyppolytus in Phaedra at the Donmar Warehouse.
But alas, poor Paul had to pull out of the production after picking up a throat infection. Ben Meyjes replaces him in the key role of Hippolytus.
Frank McGuinness’s Phaedra, adapted from the work of the 17th-century French playwright Jean Racine, reveals the devastating potential of love and the brutality of human nature.
The King is missing and presumed dead. His warrior son is braced for his inheritance. Phaedra, the tormented Queen, has a terrifying secret that will shake Athens to its core.
The rip-roaring tale of death and incest exudes passion and demands actors with at least some sexual chemistry. Clare Higgins – who won an Olivier Actress Award for her performance of Euripides’ Hecuba two years ago – burnt up the stage as the fiery Queen.
But the debutant Meyjes blew cold all night. With only hours to make the step up from understudy to key player, it is understandable and, perhaps, he will improve over the passage of time. But as I saw it, his contribution was tepid. He draped about the stage with about as much presence as an awkward 14-year-old at a hen night, shyly entertaining the attentions of Marcella Plunkett’s Aricia.
The erotic taunts and blazing chemistry between heroine and stepson was crying out for the Nicholls’ factor. For the sake of the Donmar, I wish him a speedy return.
Until June 3
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