Orestes
Image Kathleen Wheatley

Dates: 2022

Company: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

Role: Director

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About (extract from director's notes)

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Euripides is a dark clown and his play Orestes is his final act of artistic vandalism. The play is based on Eumenides by Aeschylus, written 50 years earlier. Aeschylus’ version depicts the origin of the rule of law in Athens - a moment when legal deliberation superseded blood vengeance as a way of resolving conflict. Euripides retains Aeschylus’ characters and story, but destroys the play’s original meaning. His revisionist version asks: Is our system fair or is it irreparably corrupt? What is justice anyway? Why do we give so much power and attention to rich people? Are the gods even listening? 

This adaptation of the play by Anne Carson amplifies Euripides’ revolutionary instincts and dark comedy. She gives us a stage full of vivid and deeply flawed characters, a chameleon-like chorus that changes its point of view almost every scene and an absurd Deus Ex Machina which frustrates every principle of a well-made play.

For the ancient Greeks, theatre was a place that explored the limits of human experience. We have embraced the emotional and intellectual challenge of this material with music and costumes channelling the unbridled passion and yearning of various post-punk cultures, while drawing on classical architecture and ritual as a framing for the world.

I am loving the energy and invention of the artists who have worked with such skill and passion to bring this 2500 year old play into vivid relief for our audiences.

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The production was made with second year WAAPA students and was not reviewed

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