Persephone Escapes Hades To Go On Tour

I have a confession to make: I love black box theatre productions. Perhaps it stems from the times I myself spent acting and singing in a black box theatre while at university, or perhaps, it’s because, when the seats you have reserved in your name as a reviewer end up being on the front row, you are so close to the actors on stage that you almost feel like a part of the production yourself.

So, when I arrived at Doncaster Little Theatre on Wednesday evening to take in the production of Persephone and saw that the theatre was a black box I was reminded of my own fond memories in student theatre, and excited to see what this group of young actors could provide me in the present day.

Persephone is a new musical by Emma Hawkins and Carrie Penn, which is touring in four cities across the UK with Jazz Hands Productions, a student-run production company based in Oxford. Doncaster was its second stop, having already visited Cambridge on the way up north, with Liverpool and London still to come later in August.

The show is a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone, with some minor differences from the most popular version of the original, most pertinently being that Persephone, rather than being abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld against her will, genuinely falls in love with Hades and accompanies him willingly. But after famine ravages Olympus, Zeus demands that she is returned, and the king of the gods starts inserting himself into Persephone’s relationship with Hades, making everything a little bit complicated.

For the most part, the show was entertaining, engaging, and high-quality. The performances of Bethan Draycott (Persephone) and Peter Todd (Hades) in the two leading roles were a particular highlight, with Todd truly standing out as the tortured, mischievous and charming Hades. Hades is subjected to a string of emotional trials and tribulations during the course of the musical, and Todd portrayed these challenging emotions effortlessly, truly enabling the audience to empathise with a character usually considered to be one-dimensionally evil.

Draycott’s performance as Persephone was also excellent, juxtaposing seamlessly the girlish innocence and infatuation in the first act with the raw and bitter pain of sexual abuse and betrayal in the second act. Lorcan Cudlip-Cook played a marvellously sleazy Zeus to perfection as well, wonderfully capturing the arrogance and self-importance of an untouchable dictator, while Rachel Smyth (Hera), Abi Watkinson (Aphrodite) and Emma Starbuck (Demeter) all brought nuance to their smaller roles.

While there were exceptionally strong acting performances all around, I was left wanting a little bit by the music and the vocals, which were – for a musical – slightly underwhelming. There were some highlights: the duet of ‘Hey Brother’ between Zeus and Hades was superb – indeed, anything that involved Cudlip-Cook’s powerful voice stood out – and the brief moments when the chorus of narrators fell into harmony together offered some of the most pleasant listening of the night. Indeed, when the entire cast came together for the final number and filled the room with a glorious wall of sound, I felt a little disappointed that we hadn’t had the chance to hear them all sing collectively any sooner.

That being said, I felt far less emotional impact from the musical numbers than I did from the acting, and at times couldn’t help but wonder if the show would have been more impactful as a piece of straight theatre. There were several cast members who offered far stronger acting performances than vocal performances – Franco Lopez demonstrated excellent comedic timing as Hermes and grew into the role as the production went on, but perhaps wasn’t the right choice to lead the opening number of the show. Furthermore, some of the melodies were unnecessarily complex and gave the actors too much to do: low notes were lost beneath the backing tracks, and although no-one was out of tune throughout the entire two-and-a-half-hour show, the high notes had a tendency to be shouted, rather than sung.

All things considered, though, the performance was truly excellent. For a show that was written and performed entirely by students – i.e. not professional actors – the quality of the acting in particular was phenomenal. The script was thoughtful and innovative, the set was simple but used effectively and efficiently, and the music was pleasant, if a little forgettable. This was a wonderful advert for original, black box, student theatre, and it's clear that several of the cast members, as well as the writers of the show itself, have a great deal of potential.