Review – The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon
Many of us are familiar with the tragic fate of Agamemnon on his return to his wife Clytemnestra from Troy. It is a story of betrayal, cowardice and revenge, and in The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon it is transplanted from the battleground of Troy to a bunker of the First World War. Trapped in a dark and dirty trench with a single companion and a bottle of rum, Agamemnon recalls the sweet and tender blossoming of the relationship with his young wife, and his subsequent betrayal and abandonment of her. The core of the myth is kept intact, though there are necessary differences in small details of the plot. But it is brilliantly executed, providing an interesting variation of a familiar, but not overly saturated, legend.
This is a totally immersive experience. The audience shuffles in to the bunker in the almost dark, with dirt at their feet and lanterns swinging above their heads. There is barbed wire and sandbags, and we sit on wooden benches lining the canvas walls while the action plays out inches in front of us. The sound of dropping bombs and firing guns echo from outside, and a soldier grabs the arm of a young audience member. They both scream. Sam Donnelly, James Marlowe, Bebe Sanders and Hayden Wood are all extraordinary in their performances. While it is difficult to pull one from the brilliant heap, Saunders’ transformation from sweet and doting wife, to callous woman scorned, to haunting apparition, is mesmerising. The hyperreal set juxtaposed with a structure that takes us in and out of the trench in flashbacks heightens the sense of bewildered shellshock of Agamemnon, as he struggles to decipher memory, illusion, dreams and reality. Jethro Compton, director, producer and designer, provides a fully realised and perfectly crafted world, and the product of his vision is enthralling.
This show is, in a word, brilliant. I was left with a sense of my own shellshock as I struggled to remove myself from this tragic and so tangible world. I am planning to purchase my tickets for the other two shows in the trilogy, Macbeth and Morgana, right now.
