“Meg Clarke…you won’t be able to take your eyes off her“
Veronica Hannon
5 Stars
Venue : The Old Fitz
Until March 22nd, 2025
Iphigenia in Splott has a cast of one. Meg Clarke is the performer, and throughout the 90-minute play, you won’t be able to take your eyes off her.
Clarke is Effie. She is not the daughter of a Greek general but, as reimagined by Welsh playwright Gary Owen, a gobby young woman from Splott, a deprived area of Cardiff. Not for her the Grecian palace of Agamemnon, but wretched streets paved with neglect. The grass grows through the pavements, the libraries have been closed, and there are long queues in the benefits office. Like Euripides’s protagonist, she is a sacrificial lamb but slain on an altar of Tory austerity. Owen’s telling of the heroic story of Effie is urgent and alive, with no wasted moments.
The work first premiered in the UK in 2015 at the height of cuts in public spending. This is not poverty porn. The audience isn’t asked to sit passively and contemplate “There but for the grace of God, go I”. Instead, this piece is a call to arms. Owen writes with a fury that is not alienating but bluntly effective. Any contemporary exploration of class has been off the theatrical menu for a while, but Owen brings it back with a deep compassion and respect for his characters. He gives them what justice demands – an authentic voice.
Lucy Clements directs here and excellently guides her actor to deliver a memorable performance. Effie is a natural, poetic storyteller, and Clarke understands this. She and Clements work together to make deliberate and impactful choices so that, with clarity, we hear Effie’s words resonate in the space. Clarke has also found a lovely balance between the high energy the role demands and an eerie stillness that left me holding my breath.
The design team have provided Effie with an island in the stripped-to-the-walls Fitz space. It allows nothing to come between those of us in the dark and what unfolds moment to moment on stage.
This remount of a production originally staged at Flight Path Theatre won’t be around for long. It is a revelation. Don’t miss it.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
