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[THEATRE] Agamemnon, Arts Theatre, 13th October 2010
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 03:39 pmThe Cambridge Greek Play
Mary Beard on not going to see Agamemnon
This was my first experience of Greek tragedy in the original Greek (with English surtitles, albeit rather clunky ones). I knew the story: Agamemnon returns triumphant from Troy to his wife Clytemnestra, who (with the aid of her lover, Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus) murders him in the bath. I wasn't familiar with the text, so hadn't realised just how much Clytemnestra, 'the woman with a man's brain', is demeaned and mocked for being a woman and therefore lesser, unreliable, weak.
Ha! Take that, Chorus!
Interesting things about this production:
- Cassandra, most of whose lines were sung rather than spoken: the music (composed for this production by Alex Silverman) reminded me of Strauss (Richard) or some other late C19/early C20 opera. Phoebe Haines has a gorgeous dark mezzo voice, perfect for anguish.
- Iphigenia represented by a yellow dress and a bouquet of yellow roses
- punning on the 'Hell' in 'Helen' (which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anef tells me is a reflection of original Greek pun on Helen's name and destruction / war).
- Clytemnestra's libations of champagne, dripping down onto the corpses
- the grey-faced chorus members
- Agamemnon at first almost faceless between war-helm (?anachronous horsehair-crested, a la centurion) and scarf.
I kept thinking about layers. Words separate from sound (the rhythm and flow), in turn separate from meaning (because the words spoken meant nothing to me apart from the occasional echo of a familiar root, and my meaning came via the surtitles); then the layer of the production, modern dress and lighting (and actors) coupled with words that have been spoken, exactly these words, for thousands of years.
Mary Beard on not going to see Agamemnon
This was my first experience of Greek tragedy in the original Greek (with English surtitles, albeit rather clunky ones). I knew the story: Agamemnon returns triumphant from Troy to his wife Clytemnestra, who (with the aid of her lover, Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus) murders him in the bath. I wasn't familiar with the text, so hadn't realised just how much Clytemnestra, 'the woman with a man's brain', is demeaned and mocked for being a woman and therefore lesser, unreliable, weak.
Ha! Take that, Chorus!
Interesting things about this production:
- Cassandra, most of whose lines were sung rather than spoken: the music (composed for this production by Alex Silverman) reminded me of Strauss (Richard) or some other late C19/early C20 opera. Phoebe Haines has a gorgeous dark mezzo voice, perfect for anguish.
- Iphigenia represented by a yellow dress and a bouquet of yellow roses
- punning on the 'Hell' in 'Helen' (which
anef tells me is a reflection of original Greek pun on Helen's name and destruction / war).- Clytemnestra's libations of champagne, dripping down onto the corpses
- the grey-faced chorus members
- Agamemnon at first almost faceless between war-helm (?anachronous horsehair-crested, a la centurion) and scarf.
I kept thinking about layers. Words separate from sound (the rhythm and flow), in turn separate from meaning (because the words spoken meant nothing to me apart from the occasional echo of a familiar root, and my meaning came via the surtitles); then the layer of the production, modern dress and lighting (and actors) coupled with words that have been spoken, exactly these words, for thousands of years.
