Fragments – Potential Difference / Playground Theatre, London

An innovative play at one of London’s newer theatres, Fragments sees history, puppetry, music and acting combined when an Ancient Greek muse is invoked.

Euripides’ Lost Play

I like a play which is based on solid research. So I was immediately on board when Fragments opened with a scene in an academic office. No, really, I loved it! Even as two researchers of ancient texts, one a scholar and one a conservator, discuss funding. Lucy Sierra’s set design for Fragments creates a perfect, slightly fusty old lab, in which the discoveries are small and slow and the conclusions very seriously reached.

Fragments looks at how our learned approach to the many lost texts of the ancient world contrasts with the creativity and emotion of poetry and drama. It takes as its starting point a lost play of Euripides, Cresphontes. Not a household name, but the myth itself survives in descriptions and fragments of the missing play. And the themes at least are familiar. Merope was a Queen of Messenia, wife of Cresphontes. Her husband and two of her sons were killed by Cresphontes’ brother Polyphontes, and Merope forced to marry the latter. She managed to hide away a third son, Aeyptus (apparently also named Cresphontes in Euripides’ version) and there’s a lot of anxiety about his return. Polyphontes vs. Aeyptus/Cresphontes: kill or be killed. I won’t spoil the purported ending for you.

What I find interesting is the extent to which this story feels familiar, yet has not been handed down as part of our cultural memory. It’s got the ‘greatest hits’ of Greek drama: a mother’s love, an unhappy marriage, the desire for revenge. Yet we don’t know Merope and Cresphontes’ names like we know Medea, Antigone. The survival of the original play seems to be key to the survival of the story itself. Such are the accidents of history!

Fragments

But anyway, back to the matter at hand. Fragments starts off in a research environment. Rachel (Rosie Thompson) is gently cleaning fragments of papyrus. Anthony (Clive Mendus), meanwhile, sets his doctoral student Sam (Afia Abusham) to work. There’s a pleasingly believable background of office politics: who’s been leaving their things lying around again and so on. In fact it’s all very ordinary until Sam, in trying to painstakingly transcribe the words from a fragment, accidentally invokes a Muse (Anne Marie Piazza). There were a lot of Greek muses for different types of poetry, so I won’t guess which one graces us with her presence. But she is a quick learner, adjusting to her setting and picking up English in record time.

The Muse is the seed of chaos which disrupts the quiet world of Laura Swift and Russell Bender’s play. The Muse, you see, doesn’t care about whether each word can be backed up with a footnote. She is an embodiment of poetry, of creativity, and she wants to hear the story of Cresphontes once more. She couldn’t care less about the degree of creative licence as long as it’s a good story.

In a very clever bit of storytelling, the Muse teases the story of Merope and Aeyptus (Akiel Dowe) out of the company. Sam is an unpracticed and somewhat unwilling Poet (her academic training relies on evidence, not filling in the gaps). Plus neither she nor the other characters can see the Muse. So the Muse attempts to influence Sam and bring her daydreams to life on stage. She incorporates puppetry, shadow puppetry, and song into the action. The result is a multi-disciplinary piece of theatre which celebrates the creative spirit and the art of storytelling itself, freeing Cresphontes from its fragmentary prison and breathing life into it once more.

Giving Space To The Creative Muse

Such innovative storytelling necessarily demands a creative approach in other areas too, and the company take on various roles. Conservator Rachel becomes the unhappy Merope. Anthony is her tyrannical husband Polyphontes. One scene plays out in film noir style, another like an English spy drama. The (shadow) puppetry (by Jess Mabel Jones and Tom Gibley, directed by Lori Hopkins and with lighting design by Sherry Coenen) helps to bring the scenes to life. And Lucy Sierra’s set is almost a character in itself. It is infinitely flexible and very, very clever, with actors and props popping up all over the place.

Fragments also needs an adaptable cast. The standout for me amongst a good standard of acting was Rosie Thompson as Rachel (and later Merope). Her role runs the full gamut from put-upon academic to a tragic, regal figure, and Thompson is believable in both capacities. She also maintains a running gag in which Rachel appears to be the only character who notices the sudden interjection of props from the Muse’s scenes into the real world of the office. If anything it’s a little too good of a gag as I found myself sometimes paying attention to these interludes rather than the advancing of the plot. Also very impressive is Anne Marie Piazza. Her role as Muse requires great energy to inject in the magic and wonder that brings the audience along on this journey. It also requires operatic singing talent. No small feat to make this role work so well.

And this brings me onto a final point. Because Cresphontes is not a familiar story, it takes some concentration to piece it together from the fragments (pun intended). If I hadn’t had a quick look at the story beforehand, I might have found it difficult to follow the narrative through the various interludes of theatre and song. But perhaps the point is that it doesn’t matter. Is it important to have an official and definitive version, or to tell a good story? The Muse certainly has a firm opinion on the matter.

Fragments, brought to us by theatre company Potential Difference (who make work rooted in science, philosophy and technology), is at the Playground Theatre in West London before heading to Oxford. The Playground Theatre is in itself an interesting venue. A former bus depot and then creative lab, it opened to audiences in 2017. A lot of interesting programming from what I saw, so watch this space!

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Fragments on at the Playground Theatre* until 6 May 2023

*Small practical note: if you see Fragments here, be aware of your route home (particularly solo females) as route finding apps may not plot the best path at night.