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ELECTRA - by Decoy Theatre at The Underbelly
Verdict: If you've ever wanted to kill your mother...
Edinburgh - Underbelly - August 02
The Underbelly
What have the Greeks done for us? Well, there's taramasalata - as a starter. And phonebox card offers of 'Greek Style' - the key to the back door - add to the lexicon of gifts from the Aegean Sea. But this exciting play by elderly writer Sophocles isn't a Greek Tragedy in the sense of a dodgy bottle of Retsina, and has nothing to do with the British Museum's advice to Greece on where to stick their Marbles.
10-word summary:- Electra gets her brother to kill their mother and stepfather.
Why and how:- Mother Clytemnestra and her original husband have two daughters (Electra and Chrysothemis) and a son (Orestes). Mother kills husband, sets up with her lover (Aegisthus). Daughter Electra sends her baby brother Orestes to safe exile in the care of foster-father (Paedagogus). Electra's cowardly sister Chrysothemis adjusts to living with their murderous mother. Electra becomes a slave in mother's house, spitting revenge. Brother Orestes returns as an adult. Cue double murder and a thoroughly satisfying revenge.
Lydia Waine is a stirring Electra, screaming fury at her mother and constant in her refusal to bury the past. Any dads in the audience will delight in her Electra's unswerving loyalty, several points higher than a card on Father's Day. Waine's performance shows a mastery of one of Sophocles's most technically demanding roles.
Kate Donald was born to play Lady Bracknell, and one half-expects her magnificent - and charismatic - Clytemnestra to bellow 'A Handbag?' as she bites the bullet. Her Clytemnestra is Ark Royal cruising into battle, a formidable matriarch in purple with the slightest flavour of Hattie Jacques in a remake of 'Carry on Cleopatra'. The play needs brief sympathy for odious Clytemnestra, and Donald manages this to perfection.
Sophie Gallagher is convincing and gentle as Electra's good-hearted but weak-willed sister Chrysothemis. Ben Dilloway delivers a powerful Orestes, worried at the sexuality of his sister Electra's embrace, but ready to do anything for her - including matricide.
John Bradley gives a moving portrayal as foster-father Paedagogus. Tim Wilson's a splendidly tyrannical step-father (Aegisthus) of the kind any child of a second family will recognise - and enjoy (ie, he gets butchered).
Some of the hardest work onstage is done by a superb chorus of three, present with Electra for almost the entire play. She hectors them, not the audience, and their reactions make the play credible:
Christopher Collins in striking red jacket counsels Electra with timidity and finally gung-ho. Harriet Shawcross offers Electra a genuine motherliness absent from her life, supporting her to the climactic murder. Claudia Yusef, in ragamuffin costume, sparkles - encouraging Electra through her sorrow.
The three fine individual performances of these gifted performers ensure the play ascends from one plateau of anger to the next, to the arrival of Clytemnestra's bleeding corpse.
Director Katharine Pottinger delivers a gripping story, well-told and thoroughly entertaining. She stitches the sub-plots together into a credible whole, a task that Sophocles doesn't make easy. Pottinger locates the play in pre-Revolutionary Russia, drawing an analogy with the assumed affair between Rasputin and the Tsarina - and its disastrous consequences.
Great costumes from designers Katy Harrison and Ada Zanditon, who dress the performers in clothes that enhance both the performances and the dramatic tension of the play.
Translators - Anne Carson and Michael Shaw. Assistant Director - Kate Donald. Producers - Kate Donald, Katharine Pottinger, Lydia Waine. Technical Manager - Ross McKillop. Lighting Designer - Graeme Reid. Publicity Designer - Marc Hoyler. Writer - Sophocles.
END
John Park
reviewed at The Underbelly / Friday 2 August 2002
related topic - our review of Persona
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
