'No-one is truly free; they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will," wrote Euripides. As the curtain goes up on Helen Edmundson's play Orestes, which she has based on the original Euripides drama, Orestes and his sister Electra are in a deep moral mess. They are desperately trying to convince themselves that it was the god Apollo who commanded them to murder their mother - they have carried out this deed in order to avenge the death of their father, Agamemnon. He, too, has been murdered, by his wife and her lover.
Yet Orestes and Electra are being torn apart by guilt. Orestes shows signs of going mad as he and his sister await arrest. "My soul is gone," he cries, "We should not have done it." They are holed up in a luxurious bedroom, whose design (by Niki Turner) offers its own silent comment on the hollowness of wealth: a huge golden door is entirely covered, Imelda Marcos-style, with racks to hold pairs of shoes.
The first visitor is Helen of Troy (Clara Onyemere). Vindictive personal insults are soon delivered: "Are you a virgin?" she sneers at Electra, "You will never feel the weight of a man upon you." Helen is followed by her husband Menelaos (Tim Chipping), Agamemnon's brother. He says he wants to help Orestes and Electra. But is he to be trusted? Electra has no doubts: "He is not an honest man, he is a politician. He took the whole country to war for the sake of his pride". The third visitor is Agamemnon's father-in-law Tyndareos (Jeffery Kissoon), who delivers further venom, in a quivering, slightly over theatrical voice.
In a programme note, Helen Edmundson explains that she soon understood the "sad and frightening number of ways" in which Orestes is relevant to the current state of the world: George Bush, Tony Blair and Iraq; the loss of faith in the integrity of government and the impartiality of law, for instance. She then moved on to the way in which the characters use religion to justify their actions. Edmundson and director Nancy Meckler never over-emphasise these points, they don't have to: they occur naturally in a play that is also a riveting, compact piece of drama in its own right.
As this is a Shared Experience production, it is probably unnecessary to add that Orestes is immaculately staged and acted, with particularly memorable performances from Mairead McKinley as Electra, and Alex Robertson as Orestes. Highly recommended.
f=Zapf Dingbats noOrestes continues at the Oxford Playhouse tonight and tomorrow. Tickets: 01865 305305.'No-one is truly free; they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will," wrote Euripides. As the curtain goes up on Helen Edmundson's play Orestes, which she has based on the original Euripides drama, Orestes and his sister Electra are in a deep moral mess. They are desperately trying to convince themselves that it was the god Apollo who commanded them to murder their mother - they have carried out this deed in order to avenge the death of their father, Agamemnon. He, too, has been murdered, by his wife and her lover.
Yet Orestes and Electra are being torn apart by guilt. Orestes shows signs of going mad as he and his sister await arrest. "My soul is gone," he cries, "We should not have done it." They are holed up in a luxurious bedroom, whose design (by Niki Turner) offers its own silent comment on the hollowness of wealth: a huge golden door is entirely covered, Imelda Marcos-style, with racks to hold pairs of shoes.
The first visitor is Helen of Troy (Clara Onyemere). Vindictive personal insults are soon delivered: "Are you a virgin?" she sneers at Electra, "You will never feel the weight of a man upon you." Helen is followed by her husband Menelaos (Tim Chipping), Agamemnon's brother. He says he wants to help Orestes and Electra. But is he to be trusted? Electra has no doubts: "He is not an honest man, he is a politician. He took the whole country to war for the sake of his pride". The third visitor is Agamemnon's father-in-law Tyndareos (Jeffery Kissoon), who delivers further venom, in a quivering, slightly over theatrical voice.
In a programme note, Helen Edmundson explains that she soon understood the "sad and frightening number of ways" in which Orestes is relevant to the current state of the world: George Bush, Tony Blair and Iraq; the loss of faith in the integrity of government and the impartiality of law, for instance. She then moved on to the way in which the characters use religion to justify their actions. Edmundson and director Nancy Meckler never over-emphasise these points, they don't have to: they occur naturally in a play that is also a riveting, compact piece of drama in its own right.
As this is a Shared Experience production, it is probably unnecessary to add that Orestes is immaculately staged and acted, with particularly memorable performances from Mairead McKinley as Electra, and Alex Robertson as Orestes. Highly recommended.
Orestes continues at the Oxford Playhouse tonight and tomorrow. Tickets: 01865 305305.
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