Western civilization has done well
by the griefs of the House of Atreus. From Aeschylus’s Oresteia to plays by Sophocles
and Euripides, the cycles of murder, revenge and progress towards justice and
civilization have held centre stage for some twenty five centuries. There are numerous
productions of Ancient Greek tragedy and comedy around Greece every summer. The
National Theatre of Northern Greece has staged Euripides’ Orestes in the open air
Theatro Dassous (Forest Theatre) where it played for two performances before
embarking on a national tour that will take it from Cyprus to Epidaurus before
returning to Thessaloniki in September.
I saw the premiere performance on
July 12, 2018 and it was impressive. Orestes tells the story of the son
of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra who murders his mother in revenge for her
slaughter of her husband. The play opens six days after the murder and Orestes
has been driven mad by the avenging Furies for his action.
The chorus in Orestes
His sister Electra stands by his
bed while the people of Argos are deciding the fate of the murderer. Orestes
tells us that he was ordered by Apollo to kill his mother. The Beautiful Helen
appears and she blames the gods for her elopement with Paris. A raging
Tyndareus, the father of Clytemnestra arrives and he is furious and abusive
towards his grandson Orestes. Menelaus shows up and waffles about the fate of
Orestes but Orestes’ friend Pylades is steadfast. The play is wrapped up by the
deus ex machina device where a god,
in this case Apollo, appears and sends Orestes to Athens to be judged by the
gods.
There are a number of strong performances.
Ioanna Kolliopoulou plays a very dramatic and moving Electra. Her brother is almost delirious a few days
after he has murdered their mother and she is left in the palace with Helen and
her daughter Hermione. She needs to show strength, grief and courage and
Kolliopoulou does all of it.
Christos Stylianou as Orestes has
committed matricide and the invisible Furies are pursuing him like the avenging
spirits that they are. Stylianou must convey fear, guilt and behaviour
tantamount to madness. A tough role done superbly by Stylianou.
Helen (Dafni Lamprogianni)
appears with sun glasses, a stylish purple dress and is still the sexual
magnet. She is afraid to go to her sister’s grave after all the deaths and destruction
she caused by her elopement. An interesting take on the woman who launched a
thousand ships.
In this modern dress production,
Menelaus, played by Christodoulos Stylianou, appears like a naval officer (he
is king of Sparta) and speaks in deadpan tones. He does show greater emotional
range later in the play. His daughter Hermione (Marianna Pouregka) is a nice
virgin who will make a nice wife eventually.
Helen has a Phrygian slave and Director
Yannis Anastasakis has Christos Stergioglou play him for comedy as a Trojan.
The slave conveys information to the audience and is terrified for his life. After
all the drama, he is a welcome piece of comic relief done well by Stergioglou.
A central problem of staging
Ancient Greek tragedy, aside from the general paucity of information about how
it was done, is the even greater ignorance about the presentation of the Chorus.
Greek tragedy was probably closer to opera than a straight play and scholars
are certain that the Chorus sang and probably danced.
The Chorus of Orestes consists of
twelve young women who are Electra’s friends. They wear conservative but
stylish dresses and speak separately and in unison and sing. They sing
recitatives and some melodic verses with musical accompaniment composed by
Babis Papadopoulos. Their movements (by Alexis Tsiamoglu) are well coordinated
and appropriate and the result is a good example of what can be done with the Chorus.
The Theatro Dassous has a large
semi-circular playing area and it is not always easy to position actors without
having them very far apart. The theatre’s acoustics are not the best and the
actors need to face the audience to be heard. Anastasakis’s direction minimized
those problems with intelligent use of the space.
Orestes takes place
outside the palace of Argos. The set of this production consisted of a large structure
surrounded by scaffolding and enveloped by greens nets. There was a
wheelbarrow, a barrel and a bucket in front of the palace and the playing area
was cordoned off with a black and yellow tape. In other words, this looked like
the palace was undergoing serious renovation and we were looking at a
construction site.
There may be a reason for some of
that but I could not figure it out. The presence of the wheelbarrow and the
bucket were intentional for the rest, let’s just say it was inappropriate and
leave it at that.
The play ends with Apollo making
a somewhat vacuous wish about peace. Anastasakis adds a short piece of
dissonant music. We all know wishes for peace are empty words and the dissonant
music was a brilliant stroke.
A highly commendable production
overall.
_______________________
Orestes by
Euripides in a translation by Yorgos Blanas opened on July 12, 2018 for two performances
at the Theatro Dassous, Thessaloniki and will tour Cyprus and Greece until
September 16, 2018.
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