When you get an actress who lives and breathes the words of her character on stage and exteriorises every action, you are onto something. Within the intimate confines of the Pit, at the Barbican, Yael Farber has taken the ancient Oresteia Trilogy and given a modern day South African twist with the core message of truth and reconciliation.
Elektra watches on as her mother takes the life of her beloved father. She is soon resigned to the role of a slave in her father’s home, a place that is rightly her inheritance. Subjected to inhumane torture at the hands of the woman she calls mother. She also awaits the return of her brother Orestes, whom she hid years back, so her mother would not murder him like she did their father.
The stage action is gruesome as Klytemnestra inflicts the pain of cigarette burns, drowning and the use of the wet-bag - a form of torture used during the apartheid era in South Africa and made famous during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings - to suffocate her. I have often heard of people who are suffocated and how they struggle and gasp for breath. However, seeing it live on stage as Elektra struggles with her arms and legs flapping, I suddenly feel the pain of the countless victims who have died gasping for air. Heartless does not describe what the first half of this play holds in store for us, the audience. However the road to reconciliation is even harder for the characters we see on stage as they face up to the reality of life and the fate it has dealt them. Every action on stage is reminiscent of South Africa’s struggle to reconcile its years of atrocities as it forges ahead to be become the Rainbow nation.
Elektra’s hunger for vengeance consumes her to the point where she poses the question, ‘If you rob us, shall we not revenge?’ to the audience. However, Farber is questioning the whole literal notion of an eye for an eye.
The performances are brilliant as is the writing and direction. Jabulile Tshabalala is formidable as Elektra and takes responsibility for her character throughout the play. At no point did she lose the momentum of the emotions created on stage. Dorothy Ann Gould is enigmatic as Klytemnestra and the chorus of Xhosa tribeswomen add a hunting and evocative traditional meaning to the production.
At the heart of Farber’s interpretation is our ability to forgive when the deeds against us are unforgivable.
When do you get to that point where revenge is no longer what drives you but a will to live. Farber has once again gone to the deep reserve of her resources as a writer and director to show what the human mind is capable of. She is also keen to let you know that revenge is consuming and the ability to move on begins to manifest when you let go of your past in order to regain your future.
Molora is intensely powerful, hypnotic and truly engaging
Image: Christian Enger
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