Seven Against Thebes at East River Park

Seven Against Thebes is surely the strangest of Aeschylus's plays to survive. More a sequence of events than a story of dramatic conflict, it seems to have sat uneasily even with the Greeks, who, after Aeschylus's death, tacked on an ending that turned the whole thing into little more than a prologue to the Antigone story. But its very oddness makes it fascinating, and last night's production by the Faux Real Theatre Company in the East River Park Bandshell brought out the bizarreness of the work in spirited fashion. (They will be performing it and Sophocles' Oedipus all over town on weekends through September.) Using an all-female cast and incorporating traditional Greek trappings like elaborate masks and an opening dithyramb --- complete with grape juice and slabs of meat grilled in the orchestra pit --- the company emphasizes the play's theatrical and social nature, rushing into the audience, delivering lines with exaggerated gestures, and deploying imaginary weapons in battle scenes. Sometimes silly, sometimes confusing, sometimes lovely, this production offers an enjoyable view of the raucous and rambling early days of drama.

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