#the oresteia

Pictures!

Disclaimer (kind of?) - My seat was in the front row, the website did say that I would have to look up, however due to the set design and the blocking of the scenes, I could not see a lot of what was going on and in my opinion the view was a lot more restricted than just having to look up. While being in the front row was amazing when the characters were outside of the house or the set was facing forwards rather than on a diagonal, it was very difficult to see what was happening when the set was rotated. For example, in the first few scenes in the kitchen, I missed people's entrances and did not know new characters were on stage until they started speaking. I did end up moving seats for the 3rd act. Overall, this won't be influencing my review, I still understood and really enjoyed the show.

I liked this as a modern family just so happening to have the events of the Oresteia happening to them with modern themes rather than being in a classical setting

For example, Christopher (the Agamemnon character) owned a company that sold technology to Russia that was used for weaponry instead of going to be in the Trojan War

The set was incredible and I thought the way it rotated was very effective, especially when it span round and revealed a room had changed to reflect the time it was in the story, since it was taking place over 10 years (2016-2026).

I liked how it span around to reveal Chris' body in the bath

The cast were all superb but to me Mary-Louise Parker was the standout performer as Montie. She played a powerful character at her highest and lowest points very well.

I think it was well structured across the 3 acts with the jumping between different time periods. I liked that it started with 2016 to set all the characters up then jumped to 2026 and the aftermath of the story.

It was also structured plot wise very well to keep the audience engaged over three acts, each act ended in a way that left questions that the audience wanted answered in the following act. I've read reviews comparing it to binge-watching a tv series and I agree with that comparison

I thought the switching of the action being both inside the house and outside it, sometimes with a scene in one year going on inside while outside was the present was very cool

Alice was very funny and I liked her speech about being overlooked for her sister

I thought the portrayal of Augie's grief and mental breakdown was amazing, especially with all the twists it caused

I liked when he was talking about a justice system and referenced a female judge

I liked the inclusion of Melville and showing how his actions influenced Christopher and therefore the rest of the family

The political messages/modern relevance with Isabel protesting her father's company was nice and quite moving with the strain it put on the family

I did like the exploration of generational trauma and thought it was very fitting with the source material

I liked all the murder scenes, I thought they were well done. I especially liked the use of fake blood

Chandra was an interesting character, I think she was meant to be the Cassandra character. I loved that she was UNICEF and helped Christopher cope with his guilt for the impact his technology had

Coming off this, I like how all the characters were not just good or bad, they were shown to have reason for their actions

I liked how unhinged Montie was in her plot to kill Christopher, even Jerome was worried about her

I also liked how after she had a triumphant moment of murdering Chris but immediately followed by trauma and looking uncertain

I enjoyed the shocked gasps/laughter from the audience when Montie suggested to just kill Chandra too

I liked how they had Chandra have Cassandra's madness with no one believing her when she said Christopher was murdered rather than suicidal I thought that was a cool interpretation

I thought the medieval knight was a bit weird, it was only briefly referenced in the 1st act then appeared on stage in the 3rd, by which point I'd forgotten all about it so I was confused

I wasn't sure how necessary the epilogue was but I appreciated it, I personally thought they explained Isabel's death and the starting of the family issues well enough in the 3 acts without us needing to see it