Electra never forgave her mother for killing her father Agamemnon who had sacrificed her sister Iphigenia to Artemis in return for a wind so that the Greek army could set sail for Troy. Grief-stricken and hungry for revenge she waits for her brother Orestes to return so that they can murder Clytemnestra together.
It is a rare treat these days to see a play by Sophocles. In the last sixty years only three major actresses in England – Peggy Ashcroft, Fiona Shaw and Zoe Wanamaker – have acted one of the most famous roles in Greek tragedy. Premiered approximately 2,400 years ago, the story still has tremendous power. Nick Payne’s low-key and conversational version is perfect for a 55-seat venue in which the audience is seated either side of a long corridor in the royal palace.
Carrie Cracknell’s excellent production makes good dramatic use of sudden black-outs throughout the action. There is also an extraordinary interpolated scene when Electra, suddenly informed that Orestes is dead, flips and frantically starts ripping up the floor tiles and the floorboards beneath the stage; it is, as if she were digging up Agamemnon’s grave, or digging her own. Madeleine Potter, as the deeply disturbed heroine is quite unnerving and the tension is enormously increased by the audience knowing that Orestes is alive and on his way home.