PHEDRE, Keyhole Theatre Company, and ANDROMACHE, Keyhole Theatre Company. You can’t help but cheer the ambition of mounting two tumultuous five-act Jean Racine tragedies in rotating repertory on a tiny budget with the same eight-person cast. And pairing the plays, newly translated by Barbara Carlisle, is an astute choice. Andromache, written in 1667, was Racine’s first great success after breaking with the strict Jansenist sect, which frowned upon ungodly endeavors like theater. Phedre, from 1677, was his last before returning to the fold and giving up secular theater for good. Both plays revolve around passionate characters caught in moral quandaries. Andromache can save her son’s life only by forsaking her countrymen and marrying her mortal enemy–King Pyrrhus, who’d killed her husband. Queen Phedre tries to resist her “monstrous” passion for her stepson but ultimately destroys herself and the object of her love.
