Off the top of my
head, this is the fifth retelling of the myth of Orestes (and/or Elektra; they were
siblings after all) that I have seen in the past couple of years. There is
nothing necessarily wrong with that, except that I am still confused as to the
finer points of what actually happens in the myth, traditionally-speaking. Some
of the retellings, like Kit Brookman’s Small
and Tired chose to set their action decades after the events, while
others, like Elektra/Orestes
earlier this year thrust us right into the thick of it.
Winner of the 2013
Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, Anna Barnes’ Minus
One Sister is based off of Sophocles’ version of the story, and unfolds
in a fractured whirlwind of naturalistic dialogue scenes and chorus scenes. The
story of a family – three sisters, their younger brother, and their parents – as
much as the unspeakable crimes the parents commit, and the siblings’ need for
retribution, Minus One Sister is a furious
and fast-paced play, but I wonder if its swirl of words actually detracts from
telling its stories.
In uncertain
times, we often turn to myths and classic stories to help us make sense of what
we are seeing in the world around us. Despite their age, the Greek tragedies
still maintain their appeal, and perhaps more so than before, are currently
experiencing a new
breath of life in often radically-reimagined settings and versions. In the
past year alone in Sydney, we have seen versions of Antigone,
Phaedre,
Oedipus
Rex, with a version of the Oresteia still to come, no doubt among
countless others. And while I’ve never really been a particular fan of the
Greek plays, there is something in their cyclical nature, in the way they
routinely invoke powers larger and more vengeful than anything we can imagine
as humans that is intoxicating and affecting.
Enter Belvoir’s Elektra / Orestes,
a kind of double-bill about two members of the house of Atreus, told with verve
and boldness by Anne-Louise
Sarks and Jada
Alberts. Rather than a double-bill in the traditional theatrical sense –
two plays in repertory, often playing back-to-back on one night – here we have
the same story told from two different perspectives, literally from either side
of a wall. In many ways – thematically, mythically – it is a companion to Kit
Brookman’s Small
and Tired from 2013: where that was first and foremost about people and
relationships, Elektra / Orestes is
about actions and consequences, and is a good old fashioned revenge tragedy.
