AK09 review : Venus & Adonis at the Bruce Mason Centre

The Play Venus and Adonis is on until March 22. Photo / Supplied

If you have ever wondered why love and pain are so closely intertwined, Shakespeare offers an explanation with his radical re-working of the myth of Venus and Adonis.

In the classical version the goddess of love seduces the mortal Adonis and tastes the bitterness that comes with the death of a beloved. But in Shakespeare's poem the stakes are dramatically raised when Adonis rejects Venus and remains unmoved by all the seductions and arguments that the goddess can offer.

There are many theories as to why Adonis fails to respond to the enticements of the goddess whose fabulous beauty famously conquered the god of war. In this hauntuing production by Australian Bell Shakespeare Company, the reasons for Adonis's reticence remain as enigmatic as love itself.

Director Marion Pott's bold interpretation of the poem is set in the quintessential location for modern love the anonymous hotel bedroom. The goddess appears in the guise of two women who present their elaborate seduction directly to the audience who stand in for the part of Adonis.

A comprehensive catalogue of the various strategies of desire is enacted in hilarious pantomime style but the tone of the piece changes as the bewilderment and frustration that Venus feels is transformed into the anguished melancholy of unrequited love.

In carrying the rapidly changing moods of the piece, Melissa Madden Gray and Susan Prior display extraordinary vocal prowess clearly articulating the complex rhythms of Shakespeare's verse and filling the words with an astonishing range of deeply felt emotions.

The power of their delivery is most strongly felt when the poetry drifts into song and the actors' voices blend with a brilliantly evocative soundtrack - performed live by three musicians hidden amongst the lush foliage of a primal forest ironically seen through the bars of the hotel window.

Composer Andree Greenwell uses a strange combination of instruments and electronic sounds to produce music that is haunting and seductive like the Song of the Sirens.

My only reservation concerns the casting of the audience in the role of Adonis it is a clever device that effectively engages the audience but the absence of Adonis robbed the presentation of the physicality that grounds Shakespeare's poetry.

However, any doubts were swept away by the stunning conclusion in which Venus delivers an ominous prophecy that somehow encapsulates all of the absurdity, mystery and power of love.