Review: BLOODSPORT: AFTER HELEN OF TROY at Theatre Royal Stratford East

Downstage centre, setting the scene and delivering all important background info, is a t-shirt and trackie bottoms clad Messenger (Ethan Moorhouse). Flashing his 3-seaxes county symbol tattoo and rolling-off the names of Chelmsford, Southend and most notably Clacton, we’re left in little doubt about playwright Ava Pickett’s modern day inference.

Thence we are transported to the living room of immaculately turned-out Cee (a terrific turn from Laura Aikman) who is flustered in anticipation of the imminent arrival of guests and harangues her house help Dani (Maimuna Memon) to plump cushions and deliver a verdict on the suitability of her outfit.

When Helen (Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery) is ushered-in, she is displaying signs of a physical beating. Having witnessed the brutal and ignominious end to her lover Paris in a car park at the hands of her thuggish brother-in-law Mario (Gerard Monaco), she has been bundled into the back of a van and forcibly reunited with her husband Marcus (Jay Taylor) after 10 years estrangement.

After the guys (loosely representing Agamemnon and Menelaus) head to the local pub to celebrate their victory, Helen overwhelms the gun-toting guard Luke (Joshua-Alexander Williams) with the help of Dani, who it transpires, is actually a paramilitary who has been planted in the household for this very purpose. Whilst this stretches credulity and leaves the audience to momentarily question whether they are witnessing an elaborate, pre-prepared double-cross, the pair busy themselves (with the help of others), in readiness to exact revenge when the men return. Thereafter there is a retrospective showdown with annoyingly needy daughter Hermione (Emma Monnickendam) who essentially wishes to know if she was loved, and the final character Chloe (Ellie Turner) gets cold feet about the endeavour and heads-off to look after her kids before getting overly embroiled in any nastiness.

Hardly a follow-up piece to Pickett’s mesmerising 1536, BLOODSPORT displays all the signs of being an earlier work with its clumsier narrative brushstrokes not fully smoothed-out despite the considerable efforts of cast and director Lisa Spirling. For all that, the text is ripe, ribald and energised. It is also thoroughly indicative of the playwright’s determination to place substantial female voices and characters front and centre, where they undoubtedly belong.

BLOODSPORT: AFTER HELEN OF TROY plays 2 hours 15 mins including interval and continues at Theatre Royal Stratford East until 10th October.

Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy Tickets