REVIEW: WHEN ATLAS MET TANTALUS by Tiff Milner at Lion & Unicorn Theatre 4 – 8 June

‘Involving and atmospheric historical drama’ ★★★★

It’s 1887 and we’re in a well-to-do parlour in London. Oscar Wilde, the notorious aesthete, writer, and sodomite has recently been released from Reading Gaol. James Cartwright, a middle aged, rakish fellow, pays homage to Wilde’s fashion sense and sits in silent contemplation, replete in silk dressing gown and velvet slippers, nursing a dram of whisky. When Edwin Scott, who may or may not become his brother-in-law, accidentally stumbles into the room, the encounter leads to dangerous revelations and secrets.

In this involving and atmospheric drama, a tense character study of one hour, the two characters, who could not contrast more, discover they have dangerously common ground. Cartwright, who has the privilege of wealth, and a family name is determined to live his life truthfully, that of a queer man with needs. Played with understated rancour by Lucas Livesey, Cartwright is experienced in Bacchanalian pleasure and takes great delight in drawing in Simon Christian’s more prissy and humble clerk. “Have you never knelt at something not an altar?”

At a time when the ‘love that dare not speak its name’ could cost a man his freedom or life, When Atlas met Tantalus, returns audiences to a time of the forbidden, terrifying, and illegal. As the characters grow to understand each other, exchanging experiences, opinions and dreams, this drawn-out, Victorian conversation might on the surface seem static and dull; where’s the action? But before it was understood that sexuality is determined biologically and not as a wilful act of deviance, queerness was practiced at great personal risk. There may not be many carriage chases, but these are high stakes indeed - Victorian style.

Restraint, manners, and a sense of overbearing oppression is a gift to both writer Tiff Milner and director, Emily Layton. The entire play becomes an exercise in subtext and the challenge of conveying that which according to societal laws should not exist, allows the dialogue to be playful and teasing, packed with suggestion, innuendo, and metaphor. Hiding in the closet becomes a literal metaphor every time someone knocks on the door and teeters dangerously close to the theatre of bedroom farce. But as tension builds towards the moving denouement, cowering in the closet grows into a resonant image that sums up centuries of fear and shame.

With a mission statement devoted to telling tales of queer history and unheard voices, Great Egg Theatre company transports audiences to long forgotten times reminding us of the sacrifices made on the road to LGBTQ+ rights. “If Atlas falls, what happens to the rest of us?” asks James Cartwright; a question that remains today.

WHEN ATLAS MET TANTALUS by Tiff Milner

WRITTEN BY: Tiff Milner

DIRECTED BY: Tiff Milner and Emily Layton

Lion & Unicorn Theatre 4 – 8 June

Box Office https://www.thelionandunicorntheatre.com/whats-on

Bridge House Theatre, Penge 11 - `15 June

Box Office https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/when-atlas-met-tantalus/

Reviewed by Nilgin Yusuf