Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against these stories per se, and I am one of the first in line to take up a challenge but my sights are on presenting challenges of a different kind….
Although it is not known exactly when Sophocles wrote this play, estimates place it around 2,400 years ago and it has long been considered one of, if not the most successful of his plays. It is also considered one of the earliest ‘Revenge Tragedies’.
Following auditions in the summer term, my cast of 12 girls set off on a journey to Ancient Greece. Set in Mycenae, the play tells the story of Agamemnon’s daughter, Electra (played by Emily, UVI Form), whose world is changed irrevocably when her father is murdered by her mother Clytemnestra (Anna, UVI Form). Electra sends her younger brother Orestes (Farah, LVI Form) away to protect him, in the hope that he might one day return to avenge his father’s murder. When the play opens, it is ten years later: Electra is still bound by grief and unable to forgive as Orestes returns and together they surrender to their all consuming desire for revenge and they are propelled to a bloody and terrifying conclusion. It is a very challenging and thought-provoking play and the girls (together with a cameo performance by Mrs Oakley’s son George as the young Orestes), made me very proud. A huge well done to you all.