Greek: An opera based on Steven Berkoff's play @ The Traverse

At first, fusing the medium of opera with a work by Steven Berkoff sounds like an ideal combination; yet reflecting on it, it doesn't make sense. The reason? Traditionally, opera is not very physical in nature, while Berkoff's style of theatre requires constant physical engagement. Of course, one can strip Berkoff's script from the movement, yet that robs it of one of its key elements.

Greek is an opera set in East end London, following the tale of Eddy - a modern Oedipus - destined to kill his father and marry his mother. In the first act Eddy leaves home and meets a beautiful woman at a cafe, whom he marries after having killed her husband - her grief over his death is very short-lived. In the second act, Eddy takes on the Sphinx, and the incest passes unnoticed until his parents return to inform him he is "adopted". Even then, in De Sade fashion, he refuses to believe that incest is a crime, since he cannot stop loving his mother-wife. 

Despite a few holes in the plot, the performance of the singers and musicians is very on point; powerful voices, and an interesting melee of music styles, ranging from a modern jazz-blues style to classical orchestral melody. Though it is easy to dwell on the negative aspects of this collaboration of Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales, it is not a show to be ignored.

After all, unlike Oedipus, Eddy is not a tragic hero brought down by an inevitable destiny. Perhaps that is the point: to emphasize the lack of grandeur and moral principles in today's society. Perhaps it is meant to disgust and remind people what human nature is really like, rather than the tragedy of the man who has little control over what happens to him.