Old Vic, LondonKristin Scott Thomas gives a psychologically perceptive study of a spiritually wounded woman, brimming with passionate intensityWhy has Greek drama enjoyed, as Edith Hall points out in the programme, an unprecedented revival in the past 30 years? I suspect its partly because these old plays chime with our own experience of war and revenge killings. They also provide star-parts for actors; and there is no doubt that the big draw here is the chance to see the impressive Kristin Scott Thomas escape from her familiar, elegantly groomed contemporary angst.She plays Electra: a woman steeped in visceral hatred of her mother, Clytemnestra, who killed her beloved father. But its a measure of Sophocless even-handedness that he neither condones nor condemns Electras vengefulness: indeed he goes out of his way to give Clytemnestra right of reply by allowing her to argue that she murdered Agamemnon in retaliation for his sacrifice of Iphigenia. Continue reading...
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