Bonnie Tyler sang that she needed ‘a hero’; someone who has ‘gotta be strong… and gotta be fresh from the fight’. The benchmark for that kind of masculinity is provided by Hercules, the most admired demigod of the ancient world.  He was supernaturally strong, killing two huge serpents before he was out of the crib, and he famously went on to perform twelve labours that required extraordinary courage, physical prowess and endurance.  But is that idea of heroism more than a little dated? Hercules examines that question in a highly entertaining fashion. It is a Bristol Young Vic Company production in collaboration with The Wardrobe Ensemble, and it has all the youthful energy and inventiveness that one would expect from those two organisations.

The action starts in a Theban ping-pong parlour, where the young Hercules is proving to be unbeatable. He is urged on by a shouty Zeus, the epitome of ‘competitive dad’, who believes that there is nothing worse than being a loser.  The advance publicity for this show gives the impression that it is going to be all about overly aggressive table-tennis, but there is much more to it than that. We learn of the baffling complexities of Hercules’ domestic situation.  He is Zeus’s son, but Zeus’s wife, the goddess Hera, is not his mother.  Zeus had disguised himself as Amphitryon, husband of Alcmene, and made love to her.  Later that night Alcmene made love to her real husband and thus became pregnant by two different fathers, giving birth to Hercules and his step-twin Iphicles.  This, we are told, is a case of ‘heteropaternal superfecundation’!  The chief outcome is that Hera hates Hercules, for he is living proof of her husband’s infidelity. All of this background information is conveyed through witty dialogue and highly expressive choreography; this is classical mythology brought bang up-to-date, and it works wonderfully well.  Hercules has a convoluted tale to tell, but it never becomes heavy-going.

Certain themes begin to emerge, all of them touching on ideas of male identity. The different stages of Hercules’ life are marked by songs that tick off every cliché associated with boys, lads and men.  Young boys obsessing about trains and guns, teenagers who can’t hug their dads, and men who believe that drinking just half a pint is a sign of some kind of fundamental weakness – all are sharply identified. In a significant shift away from the original tale, we see a Hercules who becomes plagued by self-doubt. His twelve labours are not a punishment so much as a self-driven quest to expiate the guilt he feels for having caused the deaths of his children. He struggles to express his emotions, and he is not at all sure of his place in society.  This is Hercules as a very modern man, and by this stage the show has taken on quite a dark and serious tone.

Highlights include a wonderful diatribe against sexist language, such as calling men ‘assertive’, but giving women the pejorative term ‘bossy’. This speech was delivered with such a passion that it was clear it came from the heart.  Among individual performances we see a Hera who is splendidly fierce, raging against a husband who gives the demands of the workplace a higher priority than his responsibilities to his wife.  She’s a talented drummer, too! Hercules himself is a commanding presence physically, but we also see his  vulnerability and insecurity.  All the cast handle the dialogue with aplomb, though there are times when the balance between speech and sound effects goes a little awry.  Much of Hercules has been devised by the company, and in the second half of the show there are moments when it seems that perhaps too many different ideas were thrown into the creative mix.  There is a scene where Hercules is encouraged to question his sexual identity; this is sensitively written and very well acted, but it does feel like a tacked-on nod to inclusivity. However, such moments do not detract from what is undoubtedly a brave, clever and thoroughly engaging show. Director Helena Middleton must surely be proud of her young and talented cast.   ★★★★☆    Mike Whitton   11^th January 2019