THE GOD THAT COMES

SUMMERHALL (26)

A DARK and alluring spin on Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, Hawksley Workman’s cabaret draws on the Greek god Dionysus’s associations with theatre and wine – performing the whole cast of characters himself, and offering us a glass of red or white as we go in.

Workman follows Euripides’s lead in telling, rather than showing, the accounts of hedonistic rituals atop a mountain, layering haunting harmonies live-looped over themselves with pounding percussion, keyboard and strings. Combined with minimal staging, it’s a vividly evocative effect, enticing us to surrender to the depths of our imagination. An introduction to the characters, during which a series of blank mannequin’s heads topped with different wigs are lit, is particularly striking.

Before the lights go down, there’s a preamble outlining the plot. It’s a useful and knowingly theatrical device, but this structure means that the songs primarily serve a descriptive rather than narrative function, and the piece lacks dramatic charge.

As a performer, Workman is a vocally talented songwriter and an impressive multiinstrumentalist, though he doesn’t have the complex, androgynous charisma of his protagonist – meaning he falls short of fully seducing us and dragging us over to the dark side.

BILLY BARRETT

Until 24 August. Today 6:10pm.