Word: agamemnon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...When Agamemnon cried aloud...
This need is at the heart of tragedy. Orestes had to avenge the otherwise unpunished murder of his father, King Agamemnon. So did Hamlet, who could have killed Claudius at his prayers but then decided not to risk the possibility that the wicked uncle's soul might thus reach heaven. "No./ Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent;/ When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage . . . / Then trip him, that . . . / his soul may be as damn'd and black/ As hell, whereto it goes...
...interesting theater happening on campus can be traced to either Rauch or Warner. Take, for instance, the spring of their sophomore year. On the Loeb Mainstage, Warner was sparking anticipation, controversy, and eventually furious critical disapproval with a vast and intricate and blindingly tinselled version of Aeschylus's Agamemnon--a sort of high-tech extravaganza in which Clytaemnestra rode an electric wheelchair, the murdered king appeared as a scrawny kid in giant shoulder pads, and the Chorus donned shades and bopped to a syncopated beat...
...shows have sometimes drawn flak from offended critics for their heavy emphasis on sex, particularly bisexuality and androgyny--which he calls "crucial" for breaking down preconceptions, citing David Bowie as an artistic hero and model. The "Paul aesthetic" also includes mylar--greatly in evidence in Twelfth Night and Agamemnon--electronic music, sinuous or overtly sexual body movement, and provocatively incongruous props. His attacking bear in Winter's Tale at the Agassiz this fall wore a Brown Bruins baseball cap and set fire to his victim's back with a cigarette lighter. The classically pastoral feast several scenes later was catered...
...Warner and Rauch's plans will keep them on surprisingly familiar turf--opposite sides of Brattle Street Rauch will spend the summer directing in the Agassiz. Warner is running the HRDC summer theater--a return of sorts to the group which had not accepted a show of his since Agamemnon, and whose internal politics he says helped spur him to work outside Harvard after sophomore year...