Despite some strong performances, Eliza Power is sorely dissapointed by this poorly focused, big, bad, bold take on Troilus and Cressida.
Set during the seventh year of the Trojan War, Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida debunks the heroics of Homer's epic The Iliad, in its revising of the conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks through the romantic prism of love between Trojan Prince and the daughter of a treacherous Trojan priest.
Part of the World Shakespeare Festival 2012, this co-production joins together the RSC and New York based company, The Wooster Group, who promise to “tell stories in new ways.” Recasting the Trojans as North American Indians fighting Greek warriors - here depicted as a ribald and ill-disciplined troop of contemporary soldiers - Wooster Group director Elizabeth LeCompte shares artistic licence with Mark Ravenhill, who takes his cue from the Bard's iconoclastic angle on the ancient Greeks and makes his actors run with it.
Shakespeare's anti-heroic version of the Trojan wars is slanted towards bathos in this version with the classical figure of Greek warrior Ajax reduced to a buffoon. He sports a fake body suit with abs, and heavy metal rock star strut; ditto having the North American Indian Trojans deliver their speeches in a stylised monotone chant, aims more for comic effect than interrogation of heroic codes of honour.
Sadly, the robotic delivery removes all feeling from the dialogue and leaves the audience with a passionless pairing of Troilus and Cressida. The usually superb Marin Ireland gives us glimpses of a wanton Cressida, but the staccato speeches reduce all other emotions. The Greek camp, under Ravenhill’s direction, fare much better, with striking performances from Joe Dixon as the vain Achilles, moulded in the style of a homoerotic WWF wrestler who lurches from arrogance to despair after the loss of his beloved Patroclus. Zubin Varla’s Thersites as a transvestite amputee, narrating the action like a cabaret performer equipped with microphone also works.
This is an original production but the split direction means that at times the play lacks focus and risks losing the attention of its audience. The entire ensemble deliver strong performances, but are at times thwarted by the idiosyncratic staging which veers stylistically from Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee to the Rocky Horror show, with Shakespeare's text disappearing into the vacuum between them. Onstage TV screens project images from Hollywood movies alongside documentary footage of Inuit tribes; seemingly intended to reflect the dichotomy between war and romance they only succeed in trivialising both, by being a constant source of distraction from the action of the play itself.
While this is a production marked by energy and originality, the stylistic clash between the two companies serves to obscure the directorial vision and leaves us confused as to what message was intended. 
Troilus and Cressida runs at Riverside Studios until 8th September.
Image: Clifford Samuel, Joe Dixon and Zubin Varla from the RSC in Troilus and Cressida
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