Showing @ C venues, Edinburgh until Sat 17 Aug @ 19:30
Jean-François Lyotard once posited that in the postindustrial age, knowledge will be the major stake “in the worldwide competition for power”. This assertion is cunningly echoed as the casus belli in Cambridge University ADC‘s postmodern adaptation of Aeschylus’s ancient tragedies.
The era vulgaris in Sin City and HELEN is the interface that launched a thousand ships. Agamemnon, a casino archon, is about to destroy the rival who stole this technology. However, the war has been long and awaiting him is not an expectant family but scheming wife, game-freak daughter and absentee son. What hand will fate deal the house of Atreus?
Rewriten by Alex MacKeith (who also performs) Oresteia is not only a worthy tribute to Greek mythology, but also a raucously irreverent pastiche to Hollywood. The Vegas setting is reminiscent of the RSC’s The Merchant of Venice from two years ago and though initially it feels like it may last the entire Trojan war, the play soon gathers pace. Simple stage and lighting are cleverly utilised to evoke credit sequences and close-ups, while Orestes trial pokes fun at our reality-television obsessed culture. Witty and well performed, Oresteia suggests that late-capitalism has been favourable to at least one Greek.