Clytemnestra – The Oxford Playhouse
Writer: Aeschylus
Director: Raymond Blankenhorn
Reviewer: Ali Lantukh
The Public Reviews Rating: 
The Oxford Greek Play is something of an institution. Taking place every three years in a tradition stretching back to 1880, the OGP provides an opportunity for theatre-goers to enjoy a Greek play, performed in Greek: a novel experience for the audience and a Herculean feat for the cast of students to convincingly perform in the language. After what I can only imagine must have been month upon month of learning and practice, the cast pulled it off in rather impressive style; the play is worth seeing if only to take in the richness of the language, the rhythm of rumbling rolling rrrrrs resounding, reverberating, within the ear drum. The live music accompanying the language underscored this and created an evocative combination which, through prayers, libations and invocations, developed a sense of foreboding and mesmerising intoxication. A startlingly impressive accomplishment on which the cast and director must be congratulated.
Clytemnestra is an Ancient Greek story of a husband who is murdered by his adulterous wife, who in turn is murdered along with her lover by her vengeful son. That’s about it. This is not a twisting-and-turning kind of plot. It’s a slow-burner that cranks up the tension throughout the length of the play. In my opinion the first act dwelled just-a-little-too-slightly on the evocations of Zeus and the dead father – this felt too repetitive after a while. Aside from this glitch, the direction and stage management were very effective. We loved the minimalistic staging, the use of lighting, the block colours – greens and purples, with splashes of orange and red – and the Japanese (yes, Japanese) inspired costumes. The mood of the whole play was ethereal, unearthly – some kind of realm created in which characters interact with deities and are tormented by Furies; the stylised movements and motions of the characters contributing to the feeling that the audience were granted a window to another world. Amber Husain as Elektra definitely stole the show. Stunning and graceful, she possessed the stage; I was amazed to read that this was only her second acting appearance. The chorus of slave women were suitably terrifying, but Dionne Farrell stood out by far as a natural and beguiling talent, where others seemed to have less of a handle on the meter of the language.
This is a play about vengeance, bitterness and fear, it’s certainly not a light jaunt of an evening – in a hilariously surreal moment, the Playhouse staff were handing out flyers for ‘Mother Goose’ at the end of the performance, which brought us out of this Ancient Greek/Japanese theatre world with a bump. But don’t let that put you off. Clytemnestra is a reminder of the generally excellent quality of student theatre on offer in Oxford, and the Oxford Greek Play should be savoured whilst on offer.
Runs until 19th November
Tags: Aeschylus, Amber Husain, Clytemnestra, Dionne Farrell, Oxford Greek Play, Oxford Playhouse, The Libation Bearers
11:55 pm on November 17th, 2011
Powerful and wonderfully moving. This recreation of Aeschylus ‘Libation Bearers’ has been a real success. The minimalist Japanese vision, the beautifully appropriate music and gripping rhythms of the ancient Greek all combine to create a theatrical experience of the profoundest kind. Congratulations to all involved.