Review: Electra (Mary-Arrchie Theatre)

  
  
Electra

Written by Euripides
Adapted and Directed by Sonja Moser  
Angel Island Theatre, 735 W. Sheridan (map)
thru July 29  |  tickets: $20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
   Read entire review
  

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Downhome Euripides

Mary-Arrchie Theatre i/a/w Illinois State University presents

Electra

Review by Lawrence Bommer

Grafting ancient Greek tragedy on country rock, director Sonja Moser’s sassy, two-hour, song-laden revival of Euripides’ tale of a brother and sister’s revenge on the mother who murdered their father is performed by students from Illinois State University’s theater program with a spontaneity and verve the adaptation amply rewards.

The action is repeatedly interrupted even before it begins, as the actors break into a feud over something or other. We get regular mini-lectures from an officious Matthew Bausone detailing the genealogy of the House of Atreus or the steps of an Athenian ritual sacrifice. Discarding their parts, at another point the actors erupt into an irresolvable debate about how much gender expectations played into Electra’s desire to replace her mother through murder. The music includes a gleeful country jamboree celebrating the vicious murder of Aegisthus (Clytemnestra’s wretched paramour and co-conspirator in the death of the dad, Agamemnon). Electra takes a literal mud bath when, reduced to a political exile seeking shelter at a pig farm, she plots a non-negotiable vengeance. A perky three-woman chorus intones desultory ballads roughly based on the lyrical original.

But, despite these occasionally irritating, unnecessary or inspired interpolations, the story remains crisply familiar, even if the “John Deere” setting adds nothing as interesting as it’s new: Narrowly escaping committing incest, the long separated Electra and Orestes (the attractive Emily Nickelson and Matthew Hallahan) recognize each other and proceed to murder their elders, the former to kill her mother, the latter his stepfather.

There are no surprises along the way, other than the psychological obstacles Euripides plants in the minds of the avengers. (What I’ve never understood is the siblings’ special rage against their mother, who in fact was doing what they should approve–avenging the sacrifice of their sister Iphigenia by Agamemnon as the king of Argos sought a happy outcome for the Trojan War.)

No question, these young performers expend enough energy to make up for lack of experience—except that the siblings are the right age for their parts, which makes their occasional forced emotions seem a tad inappropriate. But there’s not a false note in the powerful showdown—at separate microphones—between Electra, a hardened assassin, and Caitlin Boho’s anguished mother Clytemnestra. That’s when an old story takes on a bold new life from some fresh young talents.

Rating: ★★★

Electra continues through July 29th at Angel Island Theatre, 735 W. Sheridan (map), with performances Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm, Sundays at 3pm.  Tickets are $20, and are available online through TicketWeb.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at MaryArrchie.com.  (Running time: play length, includes intermission)

Photos by Pete Guither

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