Elektra review: ‘Oh. Is that it?’

At 75 uninterrupted minutes, it is quick. In fact when Orestes, at the behest of his sister Elektra, finally despatches Aegisthus who murdered the siblings’ father, the climax to Sophocles’s 2,500-year-old tragedy ends so abruptly the audience almost forgets to applaud.

We are not talking about the kind of hesitancy that famously followed the end of the premiere of Death of Salesman by that 20th-century tragedian Arthur Miller. On that occasion stunned silence was followed by rapturous applause. No, this audience response was was more a case of, “Oh. Is that it?”

Directed by American Daniel Fish, who was behind a superb reinvention of the musical Oklahoma, this modern production of Greek classic is almost devoid of tension, especially prior to the play’s denouement. Devoid that is except for the suspense that goes with Hollywood A-lister and Academy Award winner Brie Larson making her stage debut.

Brie Larson as Elektra Photo: Helen Murray[Missing Credit]

That the Captain Marvel star is doing so in the West End (apart from the show’s try-out run in Brighton) is itself an act of superhero bravery. Certainly Larson has grabbed the opportunity to be as visually different from the blonde, latex-clad demi-god of the Marvel films as it is possible to be.

Larson has grabbed the opportunity to be as visually different from the blonde, latex-clad demi-god of the Marvel films as it is possible to be

From the brown buzz-cut hair to the chunky trainers, she is every inch a vision of millennial counter-culture. Her T-shirt is emblazoned with the name of the American all-girl punk band Bikini Kill and all her verbal and body language is directed against establishment power, including her mother Clytemnestra played by an imperious and dismissive Stockard Channing.

In this 2001 translation by the Canadian poet Anne Carson, Larson and Fish have spotted that in the text the grieving Elektra says “No” a lot.

She says “No” chiefly to the six-strong chorus who in harmony as tight as the Andrews Sisters implore Elektra not to allow her rage to perpetuate the cycle of murderous revenge, which is Sophocles’s always relevant theme. She also says “No” to her sister Chrysothemis (Marième Diouf) who wants no part of more bloodletting. This certainly reflects Elektra’s sheer bloody-mindedness. But repeating “No” soon becomes a repetitive tick and a somewhat shallow idea.

Others, are intriguing. Black ink, which is sprayed across the cast and set, replaces red blood. Jeremy Herbert’s design sets the action in front of a giant IMAX-sized sheet while overhead a blimp hovers with a red arrow pointing to the humans on stage. A reference to watchful, callous gods?

Patrick Vaill as Orestes Photo: Helen Murray[Missing Credit]

However, most puzzling of all is that Larson’s rage is expressed with a flat delivery that only occasionally varies, such as when she uses hand-held mics to up the volume or distort the voice when impersonating her mother. Energy levels rise with Patrick Vaill’s Orestes, but the great classical actor Greg Hicks as Aegisthus feels under-used.

Is this a must-see production? I think Elektra has the answer.

★★★

Elektra, Duke of York’s