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Culture Stage

>>> Fringe Review: Elektra

ELEKTRA by Sophocles, translated by John Barton and Kenneth Cavander. Artscape Young Place (180 Shaw). July 5-9 at 9 pm. Buy tickets. Rating: NNNN


Sophocles’ tragedy gets an intimate, intense and visceral production that plunges you right into the bloody action. In a small, white-walled room at Artscape Young Place, with audiences sitting in a circle, a group of young actors enact the fate of the house of Atreus, bringing out the work’s urgency and momentum better than many professional productions.

No director is listed, but there are some fine choices, from the opening monologue spoken in darkness to the tattered costumes worn by the chorus. Will Jarvis’s guitar riffs add a fascinating element to the play.

Standouts include Erik Helle’s proud and virile Orestes, Shawn DeSouza-Coelho’s frantic Old Man and Eric Bleyendaal’s crafty Aegisthus. Most memorable is Daniela Piccinin’s imperious, glamorous Clytemnestra, whose manipulative pleas could move the Gods, even if they don’t convince Alice Lundy’s eponymous Elektra.

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