Tales From Ovid

TALES FROM OVID

by Ted Hughes, adapted by Tim Supple & Simon Reade

Directed by Roni Mevorach

Crescent Theatre, Birmingham (Ron Barber Studio), Friday 11th April 2025

The origins of this production go back more than 2000 years, with the epic work called “Metamorphoses” (by Roman poet Ovid obviously). 24 of these tales were adapted by then Poet Laureate Ted Hughes in 1997, with Supple and Reade’s stage adaptation following in 1999.

Stage 2 have taken 8 of these tales and presented them in this evening’s entertainment. Some of the names will be familiar to the audience, e.g. Midas, Narcissus, Pan and Apollo, whilst others such as Semele and Pentheus would be less well-known.

Rather than perform the 8 tales as separate vignettes, they were woven into a continuous storyline which certainly helped the flow of the story-telling and removed the need for blackouts or scene changes. This was a very good directoral decision in my view.

The setting was quite minimalist which, as anyone familiar with the Ron Barber Studio will know, is often the best choice in view of the space available. Seating was arranged in four “quarters”, entrances and exits on each side of the room with a third of the “gaps” being taken by a set of steps flanked by a couple of black pillars. The floor was a depiction of what looked like brickwork.

The ensemble cast worked well together although, again a downside of the limited space, there was one occasion whether one or two bumped into each other with another 1 or 2 near misses but on the whole they appeared well rehearsed.

As the audience entered the auditorium, the scene was already being set with three girls on either side appropriately addressed in Roman style togas having silent conversations to establish the location we were in.

Most of the costumes reflected the era, although the one worn by the character Tiresias appeared to be more Elizabethan/Shakespearean.

A couple of other characters had more colourful outfits as well, Bacchus in particular being a celebration of green.

Whilst there were not a lot of visual effects, the Arache segment did have an excellent use of cloths which were spread across the stage as representation of a spider’s web. This was an excellent image with which to end the first half of proceedings.

I am always impressed with the amount of young acting talent we have in the West Midlands and this production did not disappoint in that respect. All of the performers came across and confident, delivered the lines well and I didn’t notice a single prompt throughout the evening.

The only thing I would mention in this regard is that at the start of the 2nd act, there was a group at the back of the stage having a conversation that was meant to be audible but it was difficult to hear what was being said. Unlike the silent conversation at the start of the 1st act it did seem that this one was meant to be audible.

I am always impressed by the amount of young talent we have in the West Midlands and this show did not disappoint in that regard as everyone in the cast gave their all and contributed to this experience.

Sebastian Parker-Duber and Deeksha Sharma led the way with a confident opening as Jupiter and Juno, who essentially set the wheels in motion. These two worked well together and gave us strong performances with a lot of expression.

Sean Domanski as Tiresias gave an almost Shakespearean performance to go with his costume and handled the role coming in and out as required.

There was a lot of fun to be had from Tabaarak Pathan in the role of Narcissus, with plenty of appropriate grooming and preening, yet this did not take away from the ultimate tragedy of the character.

Loaria Carvalhido-Gilbert gave us a strong, powerful voice in the role of Semele, most notably when she had to a song a capella – never easy to do a song at the best of times let alone without musical accompaniment yet this was done superbly.

Herbie Oldershaw as Bacchus, resplendent in green, moved well around the stage during his scenes, whilst Rudy Hudson as Pentheus gave us a strong voice with lots of anger. Hannah Rust as Arachne gave us a good amount of expressive hand work to go with her performance.

Eve Hack-Myers as Midas was another very strong and very expressive performance and we had a very powerful monologue from Indigo Perrett as Philomena.

Iris Baguley as Procne seemed to be very much channelling her inner Lady Macbeth in the scene where she was plotting the death of Tereus, an appropriately malicious performance from Krrish Mehta in that role.

Bella Bailey as Apollo had a very strong singing voice, especially needed to hold such a long note at one point! Not convinced that was actually a lyre she was playing though, albeit that’s one for props rather than performance!

Doing these reviews, it’s always good to get the chance to see something that I have never seen before and this certainly falls into that category. And what a way to showcase the talents of over 30 young performers who kept us interested and entertained for the evening. A very enjoyable experience. Well done.

Reviewed by – David G