Echoes
of the Trojan War and the generation-to-generation woes of Greece's House of
Atreus reverberate in Sophocles' "Elektra," presented by American
Conservatory Theater in
a translation and adaptation by playwright-scholar Timberlake Wertenbaker.
In
brief, the title character, played by René Augesen, is still lamenting the murder
of her father by her mother and her mother's lover several years earlier.
Elektra is hoping that her brother will return to Mycenae to avenge their
father's death. Because of her loud, unending mourning, Elektra has become
something of an outcast in her own home and may be teetering on the brink of
insanity.
In
a tense confrontation between mother and daughter, the steely Clytemnestra (Caroline
Lagerfelt) tells
Elektra that she had killed Agamemnon to avenge his sacrificial murder of
Elektra's sister Iphigenia. Therefore, Clytemnestra felt her actions had been
justified. ACT program notes go into further detail about all of the background
leading up to this play, but Wertenbaker's accessible translation provides
basic background information clearly and simply.
Running
90 minutes without intermission, ACT's production is directed by artistic
director Carey Perloff, now in her 20th season with the company. Unlike many other
classical Greek dramas, which use a Chorus of several people to comment on the
action and serve as a kind of jury, this adaptation uses only one person, Olympia
Dukakis, 81, to
fill that role. With her silvery hair and dignified stage presence, Dukakis's
Chorus Leader serves as a voice of reason and a welcome counterpoint to
Elektra's rage. The Chorus Leader also helps the audience to explore the play's
key questions about the nature of justice.
Augesen,
an ACT associate artist, has the daunting challenge of sustaining Elektra's
rage, grief and the frustration of being a powerless woman. She meets that
challenge successfully even though her character's extremes can be a bit much
to take at times.
Lagerfelt's
Clytemnestra evokes little sympathy in her treatment of Elektra, yet she makes
a persuasive argument for why she was so aggrieved by her husband. Nick
Steen as
Orestes, Elektra's brother, brings an aura of strength, resolve and heroism as
he returns and fulfills what he and Elektra see as his duty to avenge their
father's death.
Their
sister, Chrysothemis, well played by Allegra Rose Edwards, has curried favor with their
mother as a way of going along to get along, but Elektra wins her over. Among
the other supporting characters, Anthony Fusco as Orestes' Tutor has a standout
scene when he gives a vivid (but fictional) description of Orestes' death in a
chariot race. Steven Anthony Jones as Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, and Titus
Tompkins as
Pylades, Orestes' cousin and companion, complete the cast.
Ralph
Funicello's set
foreshadows the play's mood as the audience enters and sees a chain link fence
topped by barbed wire stretching across the stage. Lighting by Nancy
Schertler reveals
the grimly black palace behind the fence and later uses red to symbolize the
bloodshed within.
Costumes
by Candice Donnelly run the gamut from, as Perloff says, ancient Greece to haute
couture. The latter is seen in Chrysothemis, whose prissy white outfit evokes
the mod mode of the late '60s or early '70s. Sound by Cliff Caruthers completes the play's design
components..
Another
key element in this production is provided by composer David Lang's haunting score, played and
sometimes sung by cellist Theresa Wong, who sits on one side of the stage.
Because
of its near-unrelenting keening, "Elektra" may be hard for some
observers to take, but the acting and design elements are all outstanding.