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.
