Scenes From An Execution, The Lyttelton

Anyone who's trekked the art galleries of Venice knows how tiring it is looking at endless Biblical scenes and grim portraits of the city's rulers, the Doges. After a couple of hours, you slink out into the sun for gelato. In Howard Barker's, Scenes From An Execution, 16th century woman artist, Galactia, has reached that stage too. When she's asked to produce a painting of the city's victory in the Battle of Lepanto, she decides to recreate it as a gore fest of death and mutilation.

Easel words

Her decison forces us to consider the tension between art as a function of self expression and art as a public record upholding political narratives.When Galactia's florid and intense floor to ceiling painting is unveiled to her patron, the instant response is horror. It is the moment of victory, not the price paid for it, that he has sought to have recreated.So great is the outrage, she's imprisoned. Her lover, Carpeta, a man who loves the Biblical, meanwhile takes the job. Why can't our heroine see through him, especially when it's obvious that the Doge, who's really rather decent under all that silk, is crazy for her?  The political and the personal come together nicely in a very stately way with Fiona Shaw as an earthily bare-breasted Galactia, Jamie Ballard an oleaginous Carpeta, and Tim McInnerney an enlightened Doge.

In conclusion: Tom Cairns elegantly set and directed production is pleasing to the eye, but there is no intimacy. The play feels too small for such a grand staging. The first half is slow and some punters left at the interval, which was a shame.

References
Lyttelton Theatre, Tickets
Fiona Mountford review in The Evening Standard