At the end of the seventeenth century the French playwright Jean Racinefresh from the success of the comedy The Litigantsdecides to return to the drama and chooses ancient Rome: he is inspired by Annales from Tacitthe greatest Latin historian and biographer of the imperial age, for one of the most heinous and crucial junctions ofRoman Empire. The title of the play is written “Britishs ”, but it reads Nero or, better still, how power corrupts the human soul.
British lands in Britain
Three centuries later, the show, which was not very successful in its homeland, is adapted into English. That the Great Britain dedicate a show to the man from whom it takes its name, it seems an almost due tribute. For the occasion, 25 years after the last time that the opera was staged in the UK, Racine’s text was translated from Timberlake Wertenbakerone of the leading English theater writers, who has the merit of having reduced the verbose original text, in 5 acts, to just 90 minutes, and a single act: much more digestible for modern artistic times. Hosted at Lyric Hammersmiththeater at the suburbs of LondonBritannicus is a production Off, outside the big entertainment circuits of the center. The theater itself is an interesting mixture of old and new: concrete in the typical English Brutalist style of the late 1970s, for the facade and the foyer. The stage room, on the other hand, is the reproduction of a baroque theater, with stuccoes, ornaments, red velvet armchairs.
Hyper-modernization
This double soul is also reflected in the drama: in deference to the rampant (and annoying) tendency to modernize, even too much, the classical works, the direction of Atri Banerjee opt for acontemporary setting, with office chairs and shelves; the actors are dressed in everyday clothes. And there is also one splash of gender and BLMequally in vogue: this is how Britannicus is personified by the Indian Nathaniel Curtis; Nero is the pale and blond actor William Robinson (very different from the traditional iconography of the emperor); while Afranio Burro, The powerful Prefect of the Praetorium(a sort of Minister of Defense and head of the army), as well as Nero’s tutor (next to Senecawhich however does not appear in the play) is even interpreted by a woman, the androgynous Helena Lymbery. The only scenographic reference in Rome is a panel behind the actors depicting the she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus, a historical reference that is centuries away from the plot. The drama begins in beef stockings, and forces the viewer to chew the history of Rome. Here is a brief summary.
The Julius-Claudian dynasty
L‘Emperor Claudiusfourth successor of Augustus, in 54 after Christ conquer the great island beyond the Gallia, then inhabited by Celtic tribes. He gives it the name of Britannia and founds the colony of London, the future London. The emperor, ascended the throne later Caligulahas four wives: the third, married at the age of 14, had been Messalina, as beautiful as it is degenerate; he has a son from her, in honor of the new province of the empire, which she calls Britannicus. The fourth wife, Agrippinahad already had a child from a previous marriage: Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, but for all Nero. A ruthless and power-hungry woman, Agrippina plagiarizes her husband so that she names her adopted son Nero as heir to the throne in place of the legitimate Brit. Once she has obtained the throne, the empress consort will then have her husband poisoned to accelerate the ascent of her son.
Nero stands out, the British disappoints
The work begins at the turn of these events, before Nero becomes emperor. Racine’s drama revolves around Nero and his stepbrother as well as his brother-in-law, having married his sister OctaviaBritish.