Word: clytemnestra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fairly obvious to first-afternooners that Playwright O'Neill has moved Greece to New England. Those who knew their Euripides were quick to detect a parallel between Mourning Becomes Electra and the classic tragedy, recalled how Agamemnon, returning from the Trojan War, was killed by his wife (Clytemnestra), how the long-lost son Orestes finally killed his mother's lover and his mother at the instigation of Elektra...
...Daughter Vinnie and son Orin work their revenge. Like the House of Atreus, three generations of Mannons are cursed. O'Neill's insistence on parallels is at times heavy handed, though. The main characters' names, for instance, mimic too closely their Greek counterparts. Ezra Mannon for Agammemnon, Christine for Clytemnestra, and Orin for Orestes are unnecessary hints to the audience. The plot and title would alone provide the key to this latter-day tragedy...
...Iphigenia in Aulis, which begins this cycle, there are three pitch points. The first comes as Agamemnon reasons with his daughter about the need for her death. Shrapnel sensitively conveys the deep inner anguish of a man torn between duty to his country and love for his child. As Clytemnestra, Suzman moves through a parabola of feelings, marking her again as one of the finest actresses on the English-speaking stage. And as Buxton reaches the heartbreaking conclusion that the one life she has to give for Hellas is the noblest life to have lived, she radiates a great...
Preceded by fanfare, Agamemnon's chariot is drawn to a halt before the door of his palace. He is the happiest of men, or so he thinks. The chorus of crones, clad in ominous black, knows better: Clytemnestra has taken a lover, Aegis thus (Peter Woodward), who now rules the land as a tyrant. He is intimately linked to the origin of the curse on the House of Atreus. All too soon the cries of horror sound as if from some echo chamber in hell. The fates are inexorable: the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra are eventually hurled onto...
Electra completes this portion of the cycle. It begins as a long threnody by Electra (Lynn Dearth). Stoking a cauldron of hatred toward her mother Clytemnestra, Dearth is a cauldron herself; if she continues at this level of passion, she cannot fail to be a top actress of this decade...