Review of Electra at the Old Vic

When we arrived in the auditorium, the seating was arranged in the round. This is how traditional Greek theatres were layed out so straight away, before the play has even started they are creating the atmosphere. The stage was in the middle and instead of being raised it was quite flat. As I was towards the back this caused me to spend a lot of time leaning forward when actors were in certain parts of the stage, which meant I couldn't really get comfortable throughout the performance. 

The seating in the Old Vic. In Greek theatre this would have been
called the Theatron.

Another Greek tradition they kept in this performance was the Skene. This acted as the door into the palace, where the mother and sister would come in and out.

Something more untraditional about the staging was the use of sand on the floor and a tap fire and tree. I really liked these more unconventional features as it allowed the actors to be more dynamic with their movements and blocking but also made the audience believe more that they were outside. They also used very basic lighting to try and immitate natural outside light and make the performance look even more realistic. They even used 360 lighting to create shadows. 

The role of Electra was played by Kirsten Scott Thomas. She is a very big star and the director seemed to take advantage of this. Most of the play was just Electra by herself. Although she put in lots of emotion and passion into her role after a while this did become quite boring and I feel like more interaction between characters was needed. The casting of the other characters was also interesting, as the actress who played her mother did not seem much older at all, which could be considered as an odd choice. However it could be argued that in Greek times girls were very young when they got married and had their first children. Oresetes then looked very very much younger than both of them, again a strange choice. 

                                                                            As you can see from the photos, Electra's 

Costume is plain and dirty. She looks unwashed and drained. This contrasts with the costumes of her mother and sister, who look regal and royal. Both costumes fit in with their social status and the era of the play. However Orestes costume looks to modern and doesn't seem to fit in with the others. He wears a denim jacket and leather boots, which is not at all how you would imagine a greek man to dress.                                                                                                                                         

Top to bottom: Electra and Orestes, Electra and Clytomnestra
and all three actors together. 

Aegisthus

The Character of Ageisthes takes this in the complete opposite direction. He looks very traditional, almost too much so to the point where he looks like he should be in a pantomime. His character juxtaposed the others in many ways. For instance his speech was very awkward and stikkato and I wasn't sure if this was intentional or not. However it was similar to how the King spoke in a performance of Medea we saw last year so perhaps this is the traditional way to show a character had power and wealth. 

I do feel like the play was very slow to begin with, not much happening apart from Electra on stage, then suddenly all the action happened at once and it was over. I feel there needed to be a bigger gap between Orestes' entrance and the murder of Clytomnestra and Aegisthus to show the audience the reasons for and importance of their death. I also think there should be less time of Electra by herself. This performance didn't feature any song or dance which is traditional in Greek theatre. I think that if the chorus had sung and danced that it would have made the play more enjoyable to watch and could have explained some things that were harder to show through dialogue.