SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Classical Greek Theatre Festival, originally founded in 1971, has been producing Ancient Greek drama in Utah for over 50 years now. This year’s offering is Aeschylus’ trilogy, The Oresteia, first performed at the Dionysia festival in Athens in 458 BC, where it won first prize. Translated by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton, and adapted and directed by Emilio Casillas, The Oresteia is an intriguing and thoughtful production featuring high drama and intensity.
The Oresteia comprises three Greek tragedies about the curse of the house of Atreus – Agamemnon, Choephori (Libation-Bearers) and Eumenides (The Furies.) Originally intended to be performed back to back, Casillas’ adaptation distills the three full length plays into one 90 minute production. While condensing the plays offers some limitations as a significant amount of material is lost, I felt Casillas’ adaptation was impressive, retaining important elements that tell the complex and intricate story in a way that is thematically interesting and relatively easy to follow, serving a modern audience quite well.
Set at the end of the Trojan War in Greece, King Agamemnon, son of Atreus, triumphantly returns from fighting in the war and sets up the events that unfold throughout the plays. Based in generations of bloodshed and revenge, Agamemnon (played by Jayrod P. Garrett) and his family suffer the weight of a curse from the gods that has plagued the family for centuries. The curse is one that requires blood for blood, resulting in a never ending cycle of murder. Aeschylus focuses heavily on topics of vengeance, justice and power throughout the plays. Originally told at a time very distant from our modern world, the themes are still culturally and politically relevant millennia later.
Spencer Brown’s simple set design worked well to echo a traditional ancient Greek theatre, while adding enough depth to be compelling. I appreciated the etching in the stone and the hanging white curtains that resembled pillars. Subtle shifts in the staging, such as the podium placement between acts was just enough to slightly change the setting for each new play. The lighting design (also by Brown) complemented the staging well, especially the flash of the strobe effect when characters were murdered.
The costume design by Andrea Davenport was time period specific and attractive, with actors dressed in colorful fabrics and robes. I liked the contrast between rich and poor characters, distinguished by the colors and jewelry they wore, as well as embellishments on headwear and the like—hair design was also lovely.
The acting was strong overall, with actors skillfully able to bring their words to life, despite the difficult and unnatural language of an ancient time period. There are many monologues where the characters speak directly to the audience for extended periods of time, and the actors shine in these moments, emphasizing their emotions in order to tell a story. They often communicate things that the audience cannot see, so creating a visual is key. Under Casillas’ skilled direction, the acting was convincing and believable.
Standouts in the cast include Madisen Hone as Agamemnon’s slave and mistress, Cassandra; Betty Kalunga as Agamemnon’s daughter, Electra; and Jase Perkins as Agamemnon’s son, Orestes. All were skilled at emphasizing the descriptive language and were believable in their delivery. Hone displayed a sense of fear and rage that helped paint a picture of what she was seeing in her visions or memories. Kalunga was incredibly powerful during Libation-Bearers and clearly portrayed her character’s significant sorrow, as well as joy and power.
While much of the acting was well done, the cast could benefit from more preparation. There were significant memorization issues during many chorus scenes. This hindered the show as it made it harder to understand and made the production feel more amateur. The chorus is an integral part of the trilogy as they provide important commentary on the action, characters and history. I wished for a much greater sense of one voice in succinct unison from the chorus. Luckily this improved significantly during the second play, Libation-Bearers. The chorus of slave women in this act were much stronger, with the actors speaking in sync in one voice with similar inflections. This made them easier to understand, more palatable and the language more enticing. Also notable was the chorus of furies in the third act. Myranda Lloyd, Katherine Larson, and Karina Barnes all did a great job at moving about the space and sounding similar to each other while also giving dynamic performances that felt supernatural but grounded.
Despite some of the cast members’ flubs and lack of memorization, I still found the evening enjoyable. There were many redeemable qualities, including the adaptation, directing and design. A show like this does not get much exposure today and it was fun for me to see something new. It was especially interesting to experience a classic from an ancient time period and observe how works like these dating back thousands of years are still accessible and relevant to audiences today. In his director’s note, Casillas wrote “the survival of these plays across two and a half millennia, and the persistence of this festival across half a century, gives me hope. Art persists. Hope persists. Humanity persists, and grows.” I agree with this sentiment and feel grateful that we have these records to engage with and learn from. Aeschylus asks us to question the nature of revenge, who benefits and who should benefit from the systems of justice that humans continually put in place.
