Supposing: review – only ancient Greek rage will suffice in our exasperating times

If you found Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey too bombastic, you might prefer your Greek drama filtered like this. Written and directed by Zinnie Harris, Supposing: could scarcely be staged more simply. Designer Alisa Kalyanova outlines a white-edged circle on the floor of an otherwise empty space. It could be the hole on the high street that Sally trips into for want of a protective bollard. Or it could be the kitchen where she tells her husband, Richard, about her strange concern. “I think I’ve been cursed,” she says, imagining him react in a hundred different ways – incredulous, mocking, shocked – none of them good.

Either way, the circle defines the relationship between actors Nicole Cooper and Richard Conlon – both excellent as they revolve around each other, desiring to get close but so often repelled, twisting apart because of the import of Sally’s revelation. Is this modern day secular woman, who does not believe in gods but in concrete facts, suffering some kind of mental collapse, or does her curse mean she can she really see the future? And if she can, what to do with the prophecies?

With a 17-strong Greek chorus in her head, nagging her like a guilty conscience, she reads up about satyrs and tragedies, portents and sacrifices, in case they have something to do with her. She even tries a bit of libation, with water, salt and wine, to make it all stop. Like Greek antecedents such as Medea, Clytemnestra and Penelope, she is getting intense.

Troubled times … Nicole Cooper and Richard Conlon in Supposing:. Photograph: Mihaela Bodlovic

She admits as much and, delivered in a tone of helpless irony by Cooper, it is one of this elliptical play’s funnier observations. The ancient heroines are a comically imperfect fit for Sally, an ordinary wife and mother, yet something in our own troubled times calls for the kind of full-blooded response that only the Greeks can provide.

Sally’s frequent references to pregnancies and miscarriages suggest there is a future, but an uncertain one. In a society beset by political extremism, she sees visions of a racist neighbour and an unknown refugee housed in accommodation targeted by rightwing protesters. In such exasperating times, perhaps only ancient rage will suffice. Or perhaps, as the play’s closing moments hint at, there is still a possibility of healing the fractures.

At Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, until 30 August