Lost Dog, Ruination Review 4*

Lost Dog, Ruination Review 4*

Lost Dog’s Ruination is an exhilarating rollercoaster ride, riffing on the classic Greek myth of the sorcerer Medea

(image credit Anna-Kay Gayle as Persephone andJean Daniel Broussé as Hades in Lost Dog’s Ruination © 2022 Camilla Greenwell)

 Not exactly Christmas fare, and all the better for that, Lost Dog’s Ruination has settled for the festive season in the underground Linbury theatre at the Royal Opera House, which is entirely appropriate as it’s set in the underworld.

In director Ben Duke’s typically idiosyncratic and inquisitive manner, Ruination is a riff on the ancient Greek myth of Medea, the woman who, the old male historians tell us, killed her own children, thus forever becoming the epitome of infamy.

But what if Medea were allowed to tell her own story?

In Ruination Medea, brilliantly played by Hannah Shepherd as a pitiful yet ambiguous figure, gets to do just that as the accused in an underworld trial summoned by Hades, a compellingly camp, borderline sinister Jean Daniel Broussé, with Hades’s wife Persephone, played with tremendous authority by Anna-Kay Gale, as the defence lawyer.  All this before a judge represented by a bewigged skeleton, with the audience as the jury.

Hannah Shepherd as Medea in Lost Dog’s Ruination © 2022 Camilla Greenwell

Ben Duke’s brilliance lies in his ability to draw elements from his original source. seamlessly blend them with startling anachronisms, take off in flights of surreal fancy, create tightly controlled superficial chaos, and mix the spoken word with visceral dance movement that goes beyond words in its power to express deep emotions.

Liam Francis as Jason and Hannah Shepherd as Medea in Lost Dog’s Ruination © 2022 Camilla Greenwell

As the audience take their seats, a bank of television screens beside the stage shows sequences from the Royal Ballet’s Cinderella, playing upstairs this Christmas and surely, Hades tells us, a much more appropriate season choice than Ruination…  The stage is dominated by a long ladder which leads down, rather than up. There’s a water fountain and upstage to our right a mysterious door.

On this stage, Medea’s story will unfold fitfully as a series of memorable vignettes.  She helps Liam Francis’s shallow, feckless Jason steel the golden fleece from her father King Aeetes – Miguel Altunaga at his irascible best – sets sail with him, marries him and bears two children; and when he forsakes her to marry again, kills his bride and her own children.

Miguel Altunaga as King Aeetes in Lost Dog’s Ruination © 2022 Camilla Greenwell

Fighting for custody of her children in the underworld Medea disputes the historical version. Jason was far from an innocent bystander. She didn’t murder her children, they were slaughtered by an enraged mob. 

Do we believe her?  More importantly, perhaps, does the court?

Matching the surreal succession of images the trial evolves to an eclectic live soundtrack that ranges from Rachmaninoff to Keaton Henson, Steve Reich, Kurt Weill and more besides, with musical director Yashani Perinpanayagam on the piano, the classical songs performed with harrowing intensity by the counter-tenor Keith Pun.

Delirium gives way to pathos as Medea finally accepts her fate. As she walks towards the door of eternal oblivion, Sheree Dubois steps forward to sing George Harrison’s “Isn’t it a Pity” – ‘how we break each other’s hearts, cause each other pain…’

Having laughed, marvelled at the sheer invention and been thoroughly entertained for some 90 minutes, I left with a knot in my throat.  At one point Jason and Medea loved each other: Ben Duke’s brilliance is to make you ask, what happened? And how?

@ Teresa Guerreiro

Ruination is at the ROH Linbury Theatre until 4th January 2025. Details and tickets here

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