Greek Gods were my favourite bit of RE at school – they were far more interesting to me as 12/13 year old than the bible which is the only other thing we studied. The Gods were far more colourful and seemed more human to me somehow with their jealousy, anger, hatred, passion and love.
Greek tragedies have a similar appeal but now with the added realisation that they have subsequently influenced so many writers and are still being interpreted today. And Elektra is just one example, this time being retold through the eyes of poet and professor of classics Anne Carson.
Elektra is one of three surviving children of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra (glad we didn't learn about them in school – can you imagine the spelling challenge?). Elektra is kept at home with her sister Chrysothemis by her mother and her mother's lover Aegisthus who both murdered Agamemnon. Her brother Orestes escaped to safety.
While Chrysothemis has accepted the situation the best she can, Elektra is grief stricken and broods on revenge (traces of Hamlet?). Her only hope is that Orestes will return and do the deed thus releasing her.
*Plot spoilers* Luckily for Elektra but unknown to her, Orestes is planning to do just that. He sends a messenger ahead supposedly heralding his death in a chariot-racing accident (cue mother quite relieved the potentially vengeful son is out the way) and he will then follow on, unrecognised by years away, gaining access to the palace by being the bearer of evidence of his own death in the form of a casket of ashes.
Cue Elektra getting the wrong end of the stick and thinking Orestes is really dead then nearly giving the game away with excitement at her brother's return, followed by a bloody ending. A very satisfyingly bloody ending. As anyone who has accompanied me to see a Greek, Jacobean or Shakespearean tragedy will attest, I like a bit of stage blood.
The chorus is beautifully and atmospherically executed through masked dancer/singers and there is a particularly emotional performance from Lydia Leonard playing Elektra.
Staging is a simple thrust but with the audience raised up so as to make you feel almost like one of the Gods looking down on the action. The only slight grumble with this set up is that the railing and audience members in the row in front sometimes block the view and I got told off by the person behind for leaning forward.
At one point, and much to Polyg's* alarm, Elektra proceeds to rip up the
stage's tiles and floorboards (for reasons none of us could fathom) to
reveal soil which she then vigorously digs into throwing muck in all
directions. So a bit of mess on the stage too – plenty to satisfy me. It makes for a handy grave when her mother's body is dragged on stage.
However, I do have a similar problem with Elektra to that which I had when I saw Phedre for the first time last year in that there was something missing in the plot. Oh heathen that I am to suggest such a thing of a classic but after Orestes outlines his plot in the second scene, I was waiting for some spanner in the works or some deviation with tragic consequences. However, what he says is what you get with classic Greek off-stage murder.
Overall it was very well done and still begs the question as to why
the Young Vic would charge nothing to see it. I'm sure a fiver on the
door would have still had the little Maria theatre packed out.
* I learnt, last night that Polyg doesn't like props being broken because the thought of how many will have to be replaced during the production distracts her.
PS sjc_home4tea who was also there last night informs me that there is a little Ben Whishaw connection in that Tom Mison who played Orestes (and was also in Posh which I saw a few weeks back) was also in Hamlet with Mr W. He played Fortinbras apparently. It is now my aim to try and find a Ben Whishaw connection in everything I see, a six degrees of separation type thing (I probably won't or will forget).
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