Agamemnon and His Daughters
Apr. 9th, 2003 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night was the last play of the season at Brandeis, titled Agamemnon and His Daughters, which was "adapted by Kenneth Cavander, from plays by Aischylos, Sophokles & Euripides" (their choice of transliteration, not mine).
We were early enough to have a chance to look at the display in the gallery in the theater beforehand. There were a couple of different kinds of things up. On one short wall there were lots of drawings of from a life drawing class, the work of lots of different students. It was interesting to see the range of approaches (and talent). Some people had a clear idea of how bodies are put together, how features build into a face, while other drawings were more wooden. I wondered what Hrafn would've thought of them.
Along the back wall were huge pictures, all copies of famous works, in recognizable styles (my ignorance is showing here: I can't seem to come up with the right names, here. Cthulhia, can you help?). Interesting, pleasant, not show-stopping, by any means.
Along the other short wall and the front wall were the things that I found most interesting, set and costume designers' work, showing sketches of costumes for different shows, sometimes with fabric swatches, and little dioramas of the sets, with all sorts of fascinating little pieces. Some of the shows were previous productions this year at Brandeis, while some were either put on elsewhere, or were just plans for a production not (yet?) done. Totally engaging; I could've spent longer there, but the show was going to start soon.
And so, into the Laurie (my favorite of the three stages at Spingold (the theater building)), to see the play.
The set had a sloped square of metal mesh, with stairs of mesh at either side of the back. There were thin lights running along below the ramps, delineating where they were, I suppose. In the middle of the square were different things in the different acts. In the first act, it was a soft, uneven sloped surface covered with sawdust of some sort. In the second act, there was a platform that slid out from the back of the set. In the third act, there were stairs leading up to the back of the set, but the square was otherwise empty.
The back of the set was a tall wall of concrete, with huge doors in the middle. There were different doors in the different acts to show the two different locations of the play.
Alongside the square there were two tall metal ladders that reached up to the ceiling. One faced the center audience, while the other was on the other side of the square and rotated 90 degrees, facing the side of the audience. They were used by the two men who were the chorus in the first act (they were captives, or something, since they were "chained"), and by other characters, members of the chorus in later acts.
The story was the usual:
(first act) Agamemnon is leading the troops to fight Troy, to regain Menelaus' wife Helen and save the honor of Greece. Unfortunately, their fleet is becalmed, and Artemis has made it known that she requires a sacrifice, of Agamemnon's daughter, to provide a sailing wind. In the end, after much anguish on many sides, he does it.
(second act) Ten years later, Agamemnon comes sailing home, with Cassandra as his Trojan captive. His reception ends up being a prelude to his murder (and Cassandra's), by his wife, Clytemnestra (OK, in this production, lots of the names are spelled differently; her's is Klytaimestra), who has never forgiven him for killing their daughter. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she's taken her husband's cousin as a lover, either...
(third act) Elektra has never forgiven her mother for killing her father. Chrysothemis goes along with the powers that be, despite her sister's scorn. Both hope for the return of the escaped Orestes, who finally does return to avenge his father's death, killing Clytemnestra and her new husband, Aigisthos.
What I liked about this production was that the playwright managed to put in modern twists to the emotional struggles, while having the story go in the same way as it does in the classic plays. It felt topical, in the first act, the discussions of what sacrifices were necessary in wartime, far too close to home. And the question of how the blood feud ends seemed to be insanity, as Orestes succumbed to madness at the act he felt he not only had to do, but was commanded by the gods to do.
There was a chorus in each act, though not the same chorus throughout. In the first act, there were two lightly-chained men. In the second, six "cleaning lady" sorts of women, and in the third, one of those women. At times they were the common people, at times they were more like consciences. Sometimes they sang, and danced. Some of the singing, dancing felt right, while other times it felt a bit grafted on.
The costumes were modern ones, the general in a suit with epaulettes and medals and such, Clytemnestra later in high heels, a fashionable pink suit, and a rather impressive Easterish tall flat-topped pink hat to match. Elektra changed from a little-girl sort of white dress when her father came home to ripped dark jeans, a leather jacket, and a black knitted hat. Achilles was a strongman, going around without a shirt, to show off his big jangle of gold jewelry (not as much as Mr. T, but definitely in that vein) and his "tattoos," which included a large "Achilles" across his stomach. He had that baggy pants thing going on, showing off his grey boxers, too, though definitely not to the extent some teens do: he was still able to move without worry.
There was a lot of light involved in the set, with the ramps being lit. There were also times using strobe lights, which surprised me most because I hadn't noticed any warnings in the program (I believe some people can have seizures triggered by strobes.).
The sound was interesting, using a fair bit of modern stuff, including some rap.
Despite the two intermissions, it was not a very late evening, happily.
Current annoyance: email at work being completely and utterly unavailable (though I shouldn't kvetch much, with LJ being accessible, right? :-)
We were early enough to have a chance to look at the display in the gallery in the theater beforehand. There were a couple of different kinds of things up. On one short wall there were lots of drawings of from a life drawing class, the work of lots of different students. It was interesting to see the range of approaches (and talent). Some people had a clear idea of how bodies are put together, how features build into a face, while other drawings were more wooden. I wondered what Hrafn would've thought of them.
Along the back wall were huge pictures, all copies of famous works, in recognizable styles (my ignorance is showing here: I can't seem to come up with the right names, here. Cthulhia, can you help?). Interesting, pleasant, not show-stopping, by any means.
Along the other short wall and the front wall were the things that I found most interesting, set and costume designers' work, showing sketches of costumes for different shows, sometimes with fabric swatches, and little dioramas of the sets, with all sorts of fascinating little pieces. Some of the shows were previous productions this year at Brandeis, while some were either put on elsewhere, or were just plans for a production not (yet?) done. Totally engaging; I could've spent longer there, but the show was going to start soon.
And so, into the Laurie (my favorite of the three stages at Spingold (the theater building)), to see the play.
The set had a sloped square of metal mesh, with stairs of mesh at either side of the back. There were thin lights running along below the ramps, delineating where they were, I suppose. In the middle of the square were different things in the different acts. In the first act, it was a soft, uneven sloped surface covered with sawdust of some sort. In the second act, there was a platform that slid out from the back of the set. In the third act, there were stairs leading up to the back of the set, but the square was otherwise empty.
The back of the set was a tall wall of concrete, with huge doors in the middle. There were different doors in the different acts to show the two different locations of the play.
Alongside the square there were two tall metal ladders that reached up to the ceiling. One faced the center audience, while the other was on the other side of the square and rotated 90 degrees, facing the side of the audience. They were used by the two men who were the chorus in the first act (they were captives, or something, since they were "chained"), and by other characters, members of the chorus in later acts.
The story was the usual:
(first act) Agamemnon is leading the troops to fight Troy, to regain Menelaus' wife Helen and save the honor of Greece. Unfortunately, their fleet is becalmed, and Artemis has made it known that she requires a sacrifice, of Agamemnon's daughter, to provide a sailing wind. In the end, after much anguish on many sides, he does it.
(second act) Ten years later, Agamemnon comes sailing home, with Cassandra as his Trojan captive. His reception ends up being a prelude to his murder (and Cassandra's), by his wife, Clytemnestra (OK, in this production, lots of the names are spelled differently; her's is Klytaimestra), who has never forgiven him for killing their daughter. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she's taken her husband's cousin as a lover, either...
(third act) Elektra has never forgiven her mother for killing her father. Chrysothemis goes along with the powers that be, despite her sister's scorn. Both hope for the return of the escaped Orestes, who finally does return to avenge his father's death, killing Clytemnestra and her new husband, Aigisthos.
What I liked about this production was that the playwright managed to put in modern twists to the emotional struggles, while having the story go in the same way as it does in the classic plays. It felt topical, in the first act, the discussions of what sacrifices were necessary in wartime, far too close to home. And the question of how the blood feud ends seemed to be insanity, as Orestes succumbed to madness at the act he felt he not only had to do, but was commanded by the gods to do.
There was a chorus in each act, though not the same chorus throughout. In the first act, there were two lightly-chained men. In the second, six "cleaning lady" sorts of women, and in the third, one of those women. At times they were the common people, at times they were more like consciences. Sometimes they sang, and danced. Some of the singing, dancing felt right, while other times it felt a bit grafted on.
The costumes were modern ones, the general in a suit with epaulettes and medals and such, Clytemnestra later in high heels, a fashionable pink suit, and a rather impressive Easterish tall flat-topped pink hat to match. Elektra changed from a little-girl sort of white dress when her father came home to ripped dark jeans, a leather jacket, and a black knitted hat. Achilles was a strongman, going around without a shirt, to show off his big jangle of gold jewelry (not as much as Mr. T, but definitely in that vein) and his "tattoos," which included a large "Achilles" across his stomach. He had that baggy pants thing going on, showing off his grey boxers, too, though definitely not to the extent some teens do: he was still able to move without worry.
There was a lot of light involved in the set, with the ramps being lit. There were also times using strobe lights, which surprised me most because I hadn't noticed any warnings in the program (I believe some people can have seizures triggered by strobes.).
The sound was interesting, using a fair bit of modern stuff, including some rap.
Despite the two intermissions, it was not a very late evening, happily.
Current annoyance: email at work being completely and utterly unavailable (though I shouldn't kvetch much, with LJ being accessible, right? :-)