DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE KILLED just about everybody around him, including, eventually, himself, Nero was, according to many writers of the time, considered a pretty good emperor. Determined to be popular, he instituted public works projects and tax reforms that benefited the lower classes. He built theaters and gymnasiums and won a few wars and rebellions and, apparently, did not fiddle while Rome burned.
Instead, he blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of 64 A.D. and had many of them tortured and brutally killed. But since they were not a particularly popular group at the time, nobody seemed to mind. And besides, there was always a fire going on somewhere among the flimsy wooden, tightly packed houses of the poorer sections of Rome.
But all of this was much later in his reign. In “Agrippina,” a play by A. Giovanni Affinito now having its Los Angeles premiere at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, the focus is on Nero’s early years and his stifling relationship with his mother. In the traditionally convoluted relationships among the rulers of ancient Rome, Nero’s mother, Agrippina, had married her uncle, the emperor Claudius. He was her third husband; she was his fourth wife. Having persuaded Claudius to adopt her son Nero, she then arranged for Nero to marry his new stepsister, Claudius’ daughter Octavia. She was 13 at the time; he was 16. Later that same year Claudius died, possibly poisoned by Agrippina, and Nero, his adopted son, became emperor.
As Affinito’s play begins, Agrippina, imperiously played by Cathi Shultz, is living on the island of Pandataria, having been exiled by Nero, who, by the age of 20 has finally become fed up with her manipulations. She, as dowager empress, has had the audacity to assume that she has equal power to him, and there is even a hint of incest between them. The scene then shifts to a year and a half earlier, introducing Nero, portrayed by Brian Nolen as a self-indulgent, whiny, obsessively narcissistic Mama’s boy, far too namby-pamby to convincingly morph into the ruthless tyrant he later became. He pouts, he sings, he accompanies himself on the lyre, and he laps up the extravagant praise of the sycophants around him. Having embarked on an affair with a former slave, in spite of Agrippina’s disapproval, he gets a cynical warning from Pallas, (Barry Silver) a Greek who is one of his ministers, as well as Agrippina’s lover, that “love makes your brain rot.” He gives up this grand passion, however, only when he meets Poppeia (Vanessa White), the exquisitely beautiful wife of Otho (Richard Sabine), an ambitious young minister in his court. Otho and Poppeia have carefully planned this meeting to entice and seduce Nero, who does, in fact, fall into their trap. Recognizing that she is losing her grip on her son, Agrippina decides to promote the interests of her stepson, Brittanicus (Paris Como), who, as the emperor Claudius’ actual son, is the rightful heir to the throne. Not to be a spoiler, I will refrain from relating the rest of the history here, except to tell you that it is all quite Hamlet-like, with many characters winding up dead.
The story is quite fascinating in itself, but under Tony Torrisi’s limp direction the characters appear passionless and singularly one-noted. Agrippina, eyes flashing and grimly menacing, and Nero, wimpy and charmless, never change either their demeanor or their facial expressions. And Poppeia plays the alluring seductress like a fugitive from a zombie movie. Of the minor characters, the scheming Otho is credible. Further, Steve W. Shultz has designed a beautiful, serviceable set, and Diana Mann provides a predictable but attractive series of Roman costumes. As Otho notes, “In Rome we believe everything we think.” In Rome, maybe. In Los Angeles, not so much. “Agrippina” will continue Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through Sept. 21. The Hudson Mainstage Theater is located at 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 19, 2008. Read the original PDF.