Shakespeare's Philoctetes by Elizabeth Belcher

Harsh light, a bare stage strewn with withered greenery, and basic minimum Shakespearean styling hint at serious intellectual intent, in this two-hour dramatic experiment in which new writer Elizabeth Belcher attempts to fuse Shakespeare's The Tempest with putative source text, Sophocles' Philoctetes. Large chunks of The Tempest are interpolated with elements from the much less familiar Greek tragedy, along with new additions (a bolted-on epilogue) and revue-style improvisation (drunken sailors wearing bells).

The emphasis on comedy has taken its toll on Sophocles' play; little remains beyond a few teasing glimpses of tragic abandoned argonaut Philoctetes, here awkwardly combined with Caliban to create "Philoban", and a slew of unfamiliar classical allusions, gods and characters to gum up the action. Performing two plays simultaneously has so complicated the doubling up that the characters are an overwritten tangle of often conflicting characteristics. Ariel (sung and spoken by Julia Charnock) becomes Iris, messenger, and also chorus, while Philoban, Tom Richards (acting with impressive sensitivity and force, despite delivering most of his best lines from a gangrenous heap on the floor) shoots up and down register from Greek hero to ignoble cur.

Narratively, The Tempest emerges the winner, leaving only hints as to the subject matter of the earlier play. Did Philoctetes make his peace with the gods? What did Hercules do on the island? But this production abandons the less-known story for the well-trodden path to Prospero's - or rather Titas' (Raj Gathani with big cloak and magical bow) - revenge and recanting. Fast, emotional delivery puts the unfamilar dramatic speeches at a disadvantage, especially in comparison with the clowning, which is slow, elaborate, and largely complete, leaving it feeling less like new writing, and more like a familiar play drifting in and out of focus as you repeatedly struggle to remember the plot.