Sherman Theatre presents a contemporary drama inspired by the Greek myth, which drives home the high price people pay for society's shortcomings. Part of 59E59's annual Brits Off Broadway festival.
Read more Show lessSee it if You would enjoy a play that is told in the first person narrative with a distinct cultural perspective.
Don't see it if You have trouble understanding British accents. The monologue is fast paced so you need to pay attention. Read more
See it if A well played one woman show interests you.
Don't see it if You'll get bored listening to one person do a 75 min monologue. Read more
See it if you enjoy great acting and an absorbing story. A timely critique of how our society looks down upon the less fortunate.
Don't see it if you don't like one person shows.
See it if You want the joy of finesse delivered via a jackhammer of a performance. This is a beautifully crafted reimagining of Iphigenia's sacrifice
Don't see it if Brit accents are a deterrent. It took 3-4 minutes to find the rhythm of her voice. I could not be a casual listener, nor did I want to be.
See it if you want to go on a brash, high-speed journey with a spirited girl from Cardiff. Sophie Melville is brilliant in this gutsy, gritty show.
Don't see it if you have difficulty understanding a Welsh accent or are overly sensitive to fluorescent lighting.
See it if you love high-energy performances by strong female characters -- I've seen dozens of 1-woman shows, this is in my top 3 all-time.
Don't see it if you cannot understand heavy foreign accents (Welsh can be very difficult), or you dislike heavy profanity, or just plain hate 1-person shows Read more
See it if you love great acting. You like intense, multi-dimensional (flawed, but human) characters. You want to see the downtrodden as people too.
Don't see it if you struggle w/accents (she talks fast in a Welsh accent). You want a quiet show or light, fluffy entertainment. You hate anyone who's poor. Read more
See it if fiery & finely wrought, with elegant writing and a nuanced, force-of-nature performance at the center. Trenchant politics, explosive finish.
Don't see it if you may have to be British to fully track the arguments about class and status- took me until later in the play to glom on, but it pays off
"Every moment in this beautifully etched monologue is filled with pain. We ache as Sophie Melville’s voice screams words, wraps her soul around them and sometimes gives a tender caress...Owen’s powerful update of Euripides' story...Melville mesmerizes. Her raging rancor settles as the play progresses...Directed brilliantly by Rachel O’Riordan...An incredible evening of theater."
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"While ‘Iphigenia in Splott’ will certainly jerk a few tears, the abiding emotion here is righteous anger...Much of the brilliance of Rachel O’Riordan’s kinetic production is that, for all its ferocity, it introduces its polemic with great subtlety...Recent years have proven oddly infertile for political theatre, but ‘Iphigenia in Splott’ is the sort of clear-eyed rallying cry that deserves to force a change."
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"Gary Owen’s blisteringly good play...The writing is stingingly funny and sharp as jagged glass...Owen picks deftly through the wreckage of Effie’s world, like a compassionate, clear-sighted preserver. Sherman Cymru’s artistic director Rachel O’Riordan captures the play’s many tonal changes in her production, which is fluid and textured. It’s a masterclass on how to keep an audience focused in the right way...It’s a breathtaking, bruisingly good performance."
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"One of the pleasures of Owen’s play is not just in the way it subtly changes our perception of Effie and gradually builds to an explosive finish, but in its narrative drive. Owen tells a really good story and one involving cliffhangers which are brilliantly handled in O’Riordan’s tightly controlled production...The ending is a little rushed...but this is 75 minutes in which Effie finds a voice to remind us that resilience is a sticking plaster and what is required is revolution."
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"This 70-minute piece, arrives in London garlanded with plaudits. It’s easy to see why. Rachel O’Riordan’s sharply focused production has a pacy directness, and Sophie Melville is sensational as Effie. Her performance is caustic, but also flecked with seductive and vulnerable moments — teasing, touching, profound. She savours the intelligence and political anger of Owen’s writing, which is painfully vivid and sometimes devastatingly funny."
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"I have found myself relishing the sensation of being caught by a dramatic sucker punch. A piece of work seems, predictably and uninterestingly, to be heading in one direction but then swerves into altogether more fascinating territory...So sharply written, keenly performed and astutely directed, but still no more than just another gritty urban monologue...Suddenly the play reveals its purpose."
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"A tremendous piece of storytelling...This is a one-woman marathon and a phenomenal performance by Sophie Melville, incisively directed by Rachel O’Riordan. And it ends with a call to revolution. My only criticism is that the final state-of-the-nation rounding off sounds more a polemic from Gary Owen than from F-off Effie. From her mouth, it does not quite ring true."
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"This modern-day anti-heroine makes a sacrifice so unexpected, so touchingly altruistic, that it shakes you violently and then pummels your heart...Sophie Melville is remarkable as Effie...Through Owen’s multi-layered text we see someone aggressive and tender, courageous and frightened, funny and sad. Melville captures the character in all her many shades, knowing exactly when to hold back and when to exert emotional welly...An important play."
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