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THEATER REVIEWS

Just When She Thinks It Couldn't Get Any Worse, It Does

The veteran actress Joanne Camp looks so worn and frail in the title role of Euripides' "Hecuba" at the Pearl Theater Company that you often fear she's not going to make it up from the floor. She spends a lot of time down there, either grieving or imploring someone not to kill another one of her children. The mere act of rising becomes the main weapon in the actress's arsenal: it seems to grow more difficult each time, testifying to her mounting burden of sorrow.

That may be too subtle an approach for those who like their Greek tragedy with a capital T. Not much gesticulating or galloping about here; the director, Shepard Sobel, is content to ride the words of Euripides. Those words are provided in a translation by Janet Lembke and Kenneth J. Reckford that the theater said is receiving its professional stage premiere in this production. It is an accessible and compact rendition (an intermissionless 90 minutes), though its best moments seem to come not from Hecuba but from the supporting personnel.

Carolyn Ratteray starts things off with a breathtaking delivery of the opening speech by the ghost of Polydorus, Hecuba's young son, who has been murdered by Polymestor (Dominic Cuskern), the family friend who was supposed to be protecting him. She later returns as Polyxena, Hecuba's daughter, who is turned into a human sacrifice.

It takes a while before any of the other actors match Ms. Ratteray, though eventually John Livingstone Rolle makes an impression as Odysseus and, especially, as a deliberately awkward Agamemnon; he even draws some laughs. Ms. Camp does, too, in her final he said-she-said with Polymestor, briefly giving Hecuba a quality that wouldn't have a name for 2,500 years: snarkiness.

The Pearl Theater Company's "Hecuba" continues through Feb. 12 at Theater 80, 80 St. Mark's Place, East Village; (212) 598-9802.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section E, Page 5 of the National edition with the headline: THEATER REVIEWS; Just When She Thinks It Couldn't Get Any Worse, It Does. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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