M

M is a reimagining of the myth of Medea. Interspersed with fragments of Euripides’, director Robert Lee presents the parallel stories of a series of extraordinary women taken from Louisiana history: Blaze Starr, the legendary burlesque stripper and mistress to the Governor of Louisiana, Earl Long; Marie Laveau, brought to life by Renaldo McClinton, the Voodoo queen of New Orleans; Edna Pontellier, the free-spirited protagonist of controversial 1899 novel Awakening; and, hauntingly, Andrea Yates, who in 2001 drowned her five young children. The stories intermingle beautifully and eventually bleed into each other, Governor Long writhing atop Ms Starr while the excellent chorus list the treatments imposed on a depressed, shivering Andrea Yates.

The idea is nothing short of brilliant. If Freud did anything right, it was to find in Greek Tragedy the template from which all our sufferings are created. When viewed through the prism of the Medea story, the lives of these heroines of Louisiana become utterly significant, poignant, and arresting. Individually, each scene is told through straight narrative acting, paralleled by an abstract staging of physical theatre and modern dance. The former is uniformly effective, but the physical performance is less consistent. The choreography varies in its effectiveness, and the company is composed of some very strong dancers, but some of whom lack a necessary grace. However, the performance is presented with enough humour that these do not stand out too starkly, and the final product is an engaging, hypnotising piece of work.

M Augustine's 11-15 Aug, 21:15, £8