CurtainUp
A Summer of Greek Theatre
– Electra at MetroStage
By
Rich See
"Wow!" pretty
much sums up MetroStage's compelling staging of the
revenge tragedy Electra. It's the word that comes to mind about midway
through the show, when you realize that Jennifer Mendenhall has been
alternately jumping across the stage, flinging herself down onto the ground,
crying and then hysterically laughing for over 40 minutes without stopping.
Dressed in combat fatigues, her physical and emotional intensity never wanes. She
is an avenging angel, maniacal revenger and
emotionally disturbed daughter all at once.
Written by Sophocles sometime between 420 and 413 A.D. the Electra myth
shares the story of the House of Atreus. Once a
mighty man, Atreus was killed by Aegisthus
with the help of Atreus' wife Clytemnestra. While
Clytemnestra insists her participation in the plot was to exact revenge upon Atreus for sacrificing one of their daughters to the gods,
she has since married Aegisthus and would like to see
her son Orestes dead. During the tragic evening when Aegisthus
and his men attacked the home of Atreus, Electra
smuggled Orestes (who's death was also plotted) out of
the country with a trusted servant. It is for this crime that Electra is
imprisoned in her own home and enslaved as a servant by her own mother.
Needless to say the mother-daughter relationship in this family is not very
amiable.
Sophocles' story enters many years later when the grown Orestes has decided to
return and reclaim his rightful place as the head of the house and to exact
revenge upon all who participated in his father's murder. Electra has spent the
intervening years crying and lamenting her miserable fate, refusing to be
overcome by the powerful force against her. Her sister Chrysothemis
meanwhile has played the game and although she reviles her stepfather and
mother, sees little help available to the two women. Not wishing to become an
abused outcast like Electra, she holds her grief inside in order to face the
realty of the situation, which contrasts with Electra, who is at times insane
with grief. And so the sisters, unable to handle their vastly different ways of
coping, part ways. Unbeknownst to them, Orestes is lurking in
the shadows and devising a plot to enter the house and exact his revenge upon
his mother and her husband.
Frank McGuinness' adaptation sets the entire staging
in a small prison-like compound. The rubbish of the murdered
owner's belongings simply decaying outside while the criminals live in comfort
inside. His Electra is a combative figure roiling in her misery, hoping
for some relief from the outside world, yet always unable to keep her
constantly shifting emotions to herself, thus ensuring abuse by her own family.
Now a grown woman she remains emotionally a child due to the tragedy that
surrounds her and the grief that she so readily embraces and refuses to let
pass.
Director Michael Russotto has obviously pushed his
cast -- and especially his lead -- to maintain a sense of emotional urgency and
tautness. Even if you already know the story, this production keeps you on the
edge of your seat. The production points out the timelessness of the tale by
adding a modern sense of organized crime and competing crime families. (The
House of Atreus is not without its skeletons.) There
is a heavy urban industrial sense about the show that shows up in the set
design, costumes and Matt Rowe's evocative sound design.
James Kronzer's wonderful set places the action in
what looks like a junkyard. Chain link fence surrounds the stage and trash and
decaying furniture are heaped about. An automatic detection system keeps
Electra imprisoned as a gate closes off the property anytime she nears the
perimeter. In stark contrast to this despairing site is the Greek temple-like
home, which is painted in Easter colors of pastel yellows, purples and reds. It
looks almost cartoonish against the urban grittiness
about it, as if mocking the tragedy that has befallen it.
Debra Kim Sivigny's costumes are similarly composed.
Electra is outfitted in battle fatigues. Orestes and his men
in dark leather jackets and muted modern clothes while Aegisthus
is dressed in a polished suit and seemingly drives a large sedan.
Meanwhile Clytemnestra and Chrysothemis, wearing
sunglasses and pastel colors, each look like they just arrived from a shopping
excursion at an upscale mall. The all-female chorus
who speak in unison or as alternating voices of the same thought are dressed
individually as servants and a family friend.
Jennifer Mendenhall is a dynamic Electra. She has obviously thrown herself into
this role and it shows in every word and movement she makes. Ted Feldman makes
a quietly powerful Orestes who gives the impression that a ruling crime don has
come back to claim his own. Rana Kay is compelling as
a misunderstood Chrysothemis showing the tempered
sanity that Electra is seemingly lacking.
Maura McGinn and Brian Hemmingsen
as Clytemnestra and Aegisthus are engagingly
unrepentant and unsympathetic characters. Ms. McGinn
looks the part of a
Among the rest of the cast, Keith N. Johnson and Dallas Darttanian
Miller are Orestes' companions who have returned with him from abroad, while
Kate Debelack, Debra Mims, and Doris Thomas make up
the three person Greek chorus.
I have only one suggestion for this superb production --- the urn that houses
Orestes' ashes -- someone needs to take off the "Made in..." (
|
Electra with
Keith N. Johnson, Dallas Darttanian Miller, Ted
Feldman, Jennifer Mendenhall, Rana Kay, Maura McGinn, Brian Hemmingsen, Kate Debelack, Debra Mims, Doris Thomas |