CRITICS' GALLERY
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Electra by Sophocles (adapted by FranK McGuinness)
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St.
Presented by McCarter Theatre/Donmar Warehouse and Duncan C. Weldon
Tues.-Fri. at 8, Sat. 2 & 8, Sun. at 3; until March 21
Telecharge (212) 239-6200/ (800) 432-7250
by Perry A. Bialor
So many superlatives have been written about the adaptation Sophocles' Electra by Frank McGuiness, now in an extended run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and the performances, which one reviewer characterized as "flawless ensemble" acting, that it seems churlish to write this dissent so late in the day. Let me say right off that after a lackluster start (the brief scene with the Servant, Orestes and Pylades), once Zoe Wanamaker took the stage---by entering through a small window high up on the palace wall and descending, insectlike, the vertical ladder clipped to it---and never left the stage thereafter, I was entranced through most of the play, that is, until the later entrance of Orestes' servant. Nevertheless, my observations are not exactly niggling criticisms.
Zoe Wanamaker played Electra as an aging, hysterical waif with dishevelled, patchy hair---a combination of Julietta Massima, Charlie Chaplin and a volcano. One critic aptly characterized her as a "child-woman," stunted by the trauma of her father's murder (with Freudian implications). She pounced around the stage ranting, moaning and emoting her anguish non-stop about her miserable captivity, that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (her mother and step-father, her father's assassins) were not yet dead, and that her brother Orestes had not yet appeared to execute her vengeance. When Orestes finally does appear and make himself known (following disinformation that he had died), Electra leaps on him, placing a "lingering kiss" on his lips that is less "ambiguous" than arbitrary in suggesting that her blood lust is accompanied by incestuous lust (a directorial decision?). This was clearly Electra's play, that is, Zoe Wanamaker's. No wonder it is considered such a wonderful part, for the play itself is no great shakes. Some scholars even consider it Sophocles' worst (of the handful of plays that survived).
Michael Cumpsty played a wooden Orestes to all his 6 foot something stature, even when emoting at top decibals still stiff as a board, except when grasping Electra---thank god that Sophocles didn't draw out the recognition scene as did Euripedes in his Electra. Apparently, the drab gray outfits that everyone wore (except Claire Bloom in red and Aegisthus in white) did not bring greater "realism" to the role. He could have been playing the house at Epidaurus. Moreover, the gore up to his elbows (it wasn't enough to have it on his hands) after killing his mother could probably be seen from the last row of that amphitheater. A bit of Grand Guinol seemed out of place when the murder itself-in ancient Greek style-took place offstage. How he managed to get so much blood on himself when he never wore a sword or other sharp implement during the play is puzzling.
As Clytemnestra, all Claire Bloom had to do was walk on stage to be quietly regal. It was a small but important role, played simply, with sincerity and the pathos of conflicted emotions on hearing the report of the death of Orestes (false, as she was soon to learn to her detriment). Her second "appearance" was as a voice screaming inside the palace as she was being slaughtered by her son Orestes.
The old man, Orestes' servant was played by Stephen Spinella. He was miscast. He didn't know when to declame and when to simply describe a scene (perhaps one should blame the Director, David Leveaux, for not providing the proper rhetorical balance). His extended description of the chariot race in which Orestes was presumably killed in an accident (perhaps because it was his moment in the spotlight) was orated more dramatically than almost anything else in the drama. It must have thrilled an Athenian audience. The outrageous length of this bit of flummery, however, must be blamed on Sophocles (who also put Orestes as a competitor at the Delphic Games, which did not exist at the time of the plot), not Spinella.
Daniel Oreskes appears as Aegisthus near the end of the play only too submissive and ready to be killed by an unarmed Orestes. He would have been more convincing as a petty mafia boss than as the king; fifteen or so years in office apparently did nothing to increase his dignity or credibility as a king. Pat Carroll, as the Chorus of Mycenae, was as solid as the Rock of Gibralter-forceful when giving Electra advice; part of the landscape when not. Chrysothemis, Electra's compromising sister, was played by Marin Hinkle. It is a thankless role, mainly a common sensical foil to Electra's obsessive desire for vengeance. Sophocles couldn't have liked her much. We aren't given a chance to like her much too. Ivan Stamenov played the forelorn Pylades (a mute part); Mirjana Jokovic and Lyra Lucretia Taylor were Chorus, which, in this play, took up more room than words. [Bialor]
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