Muhlenberg Theatre Association To Stage Sophocles’ “Electra”
Muhlenberg Theatre Association presents an original staging of Sophocles’ “Electra,” February 14 – 23, 2003 in the Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance.Thursday, February 6, 2003 10:55 AM
Muhlenberg Theatre Association presents an original staging of Sophocles’ “Electra,” February 14 – 23, 2003 in the Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance. Performances will be Friday, February 14-Saturday, February 15 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 16 at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, February 18-Saturday, February 22 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, February 23 at 2 p.m. Adult/Senior tickets are $14, general admission seating. Call 484-664-3333, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for reservations.
This is a timeless story of a daughter's inconsolable grief and a mother's betrayal in which Electra embraces the journey from anguish and torment to revenge. Her sister, Chrysothemis, refuses to hold onto her grief, and tries to dissuade Electra from this course of action. Even with the miraculous return of their brother Orestes, the culminating events of the play can only be tragic. “Electra” is directed by Francine Roussel and based on the contemporary English translation by Nicholas Rudall. Rudall concentrates on Sophocles’ view of Electra as a creature tormented by her father’s murder, her virtual slavery, her loathing for her mother’s betrayal, and her anguished
powerlessness. Rudall finds what he calls “striking psychological truth” in this 2,500-year-old play, and he writes dialogue that is clearly intended for the stage. “It is written to be spoken,” he writes. “It aims at clarity and simplicity. The rhythms are often short and repetitive rather than elongated and lyrical.”
Roussel also views Electra through a contemporary lens, casting a multicultural group of young actors and working with an original musical score composed by Douglas Ovens to compliment the theatrical quality of Rudall’s script. The cast is made up of students from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including students who are African American, Asian, Mexican and Macedonian. In an experimental approach to the text, the cast has been expanded. The part of Paedogogus is divided among three men; the part of Orestes is doubled by his friend Pylades; and the chorus is composed of eight women. Roussel, a native of France who reminds us that during the Nazi occupation this play was performed as a source of encouragement to the resistance, believes that the revolution against injustice can be familial, tribal or national. Electra’s dilemma is to accept and submit to the new order or to revolt and violently avenge her father’s murder; her position is “a human legacy and a curse.”
