Theater review: Woe on the big screen

The United Kingdom’s National Theatre has borrowed a tune from the Metropolitan Opera. The Met has taken to simulcasting high-definition performances to movie houses nationwide, to great success. The NT has not gone live, but it has sent out a high-def performance of "Phèdre," starring Helen Mirren. The Guthrie Theater is one of 230 venues worldwide that picked up the production in presentations today and Thursday. This play by Jean Racine (and adapted by poet Ted Hughes) relates a familiar Greek trope. To wit: Incest leads to tragedy. The details, the language and the performances determine its worthiness. Here, Mirren plays the queen of Athens who is smitten with her…

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