THE ORESTEIA

Western European Stages
1994
Glenn M. Loney

... In its beginnings, the Edinburgh Festival was primarily musical, and music still plays an important part – notably Music-Theatre – though not as great as under the festival's founder, Sir Rudolf Bing. Brian McMaster is the current director, and his expertise in dance guarantees that it will always be strongly represented. But various forms of drama were the major attractions this year. One of them, Peter Stein's production of Aeschylus' Oresteia, was alone worth the trip to Edinburgh.

Arianne Mnouchkine's avant-gardist Asiatic vision of this classic Greek trilogy has already been seen in New York at BAM, so why should it import yet another version? Because Stein's is so different, so basic, and so powerful. Especially with the remarkable actors of Moscow's Russian Army Theatre*, for whom this ageless tale of betrayal and vengeance – finally vanquished by the rule of law in a new democracy – now has special resonance. Supertitles were used, but the cadences of spoken Russian, like those of Greek at Epidaurus, gave the dramas added majesty and terror.

Stein strove for essentials, paring the production down to a few major set-pieces and props, as well as dynamically evocative costumes. His choruses, for instance, bridged the gap between the archaic and the modern. In Agamemnon, the chorus of Old Men were dressed like shabby members of the Politburo.

In Choephoroe, the wailing women's chorus wore the timeless black widow's garb of Mediterranean lands. But for the chorus of Athenian citizens in the Eumenides, terrified of the avenging Furies who are pursuing the matricide, Orestes, business-suits were the topical choice. Stein didn't spare the blood and gore, showing the murdered corpses – as did the ancient Greeks – on a rolling platform.

The first two parts of the trilogy were passionate and riveting, but Stein curiously decided to give the final tragedy a satiric treatment, perhaps because he knows the three plays originally would have been followed by a bawdy satyr play, now lost. So Apollo appeared, strumming his lyre Elvis-like. Athena coming to Orestes' rescue, zoomed in overhead on an aerial track and descended – in glittering silver lamé – to plead for Orestes like a TV game-show hostess. It was great fun, but it did detract from the impact of what preceded.

Some critics, sitting in the hard rented-seats of the ice-rink venue, insisted they hardly noticed it was 7-plus hours long. If so, why did they make such a point of writing about its length? Actually, two hours was taken up with intermissions, so audiences could eat and actors rest. ...

* SITE NOTE: The Russian cast was actually comprised of actors from a variety of theaters.