Director: Hwang Jiyeon
Playwright: John Barton, Kenneth Cavander
Institution: Chung-Ang University, Korea
Venue: ATEC Website
Time: 09:30, May 18, 2019
Event: The 4th World Theatre Education Conference with 6th Asian Theatre Schools Festival
Director’s Notes
We're all living a life that isn’t simply black or white. At one moment we are the victims, but in the next we are the assailants. Our lives completely differ depending on which side we choose to stand and look from. So are all the characters in this play. Electra and Orestes are victims of the wheel of fortune, but on the other hand, they are also impulsive assailants. Who are we to confidently take a side in this story? Who are we to decide whether a certain character is despicable? On this stage, where the terrible fates intertwine with each other in the world of gods, I hope that the audience will see their own lives by relating to the characters, who are sometimes in despair, sometimes confused, and who cannot be defined as black and white. For this is also a part of us and our own lives.
Synopsis
Six days have passed since the murder of Clytemnestra in front of the Mycenae palace in Argos. The palace is desolate and the statue of Apolon has fallen. Orestes fell asleep cowering under a blanket. His sister Electra is beside him. Orestes is being pursued by the three cruel goddesses of revenge for killing his mother. When Menelaus returns with Helen, the cause of the Trojan War, Orestes asks Menelaus for help, but he rejects. With no one helping them, a trial is held in Mycenae to decide on the verdict of Orestes and Electra, and the two are sentenced to death. In order to survive, Orestes and Electra kill Helen and try to take Hermione, the daughter of Menlaus and Helen, as a hostage. Just before Orestes kills Helen, Helen disappears, and the moment Menelaus and the two siblings are about to engage each other in rage, the sun god Apollo appears. Apollo calms Menelaus and puts Helen in the ranks of the gods. He orders Electra to marry him, and orders Orestes to marry his cousin Hermione, whom he took hostage. Under Apollo's ruling, the conflict seems to be solved, for now…