Review: IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Photo credit: Jennifer McCord

After its celebrated run at the National Theatre in 2016, Gary Owen’s Iphigenia in Splott makes a timely return to the London stage in its current production at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Sophie Melville plays Effie, a party girl who runs her corner of Cardiff and meticulously plans her weeks around debilitating hangovers, losing time until the next bender. Effie springs back from bent-double bile-retching to strutting, snogging, shots and sexy dancing – this is a woman who forces herself to believe she is powerful and in control of her life and her body. Until she isn’t.

With dynamic direction by Rachel O’Riordan and assistant director Tyler Holland, Sophie Melville is a textbook study in how to carry a one-woman show. Melville’s Effie is brash and cocky and full of rage, which evolves over the course of this tight 75-minute play. This is an intensely physical performance and Melville has the strength and control of a ballet-dancer – it is quite mesmeric to watch.

Designer Hayley Grindle has created a cool, stark set from fluorescent lighting tubes and a few uncomfortable, heavy red office chairs nod to the generic public service waiting room – we could be in a job centre, a council office, a GP’s waiting room. Grindle works with lighting designer Rachel Mortimer and sound designer Sam Jones to, at times, shock the audience to attention, beginning the play with a blinding smack in the face, shaking us out of our complacency to shut up and pay attention because this is important.

Iphigenia in Splott is devastatingly relevant – a visceral and harrowing production that will leave you fired up with righteous rage.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Livvy Perrett

Iphigenia in Splott plays at the Lyric Hammersmith until 22 October, with tickets available here.