The wedding dress, torn and blood-spattered, is one of the first images audiences of “The Oresteia” will glimpse.
It was the dress worn by Iphigenia when sacrificed by her father, King Agamemnon, and it’s the dress that embodies her mother Clytemnestra’s grief, fueling her act of revenge that sparks the events of the play.
“I wanted to do something visually striking and emotionally visceral, right up front,” said scenic designer Jonathan Collins said.
The image embodies why, nearly 2,500 years later, “The Oresteia” holds contemporary power. It’s a visceral, utterly human story.
In the second to last production of the season, William and Mary’s Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance presents “The House of Atreus,” a translation and adaptation of Aeschylus’ classic Greek tragedy. Directed by longtime professor Richard Palmer, the play opens Thursday, Feb. 25, continuing through Sunday.
The adaptation condenses Aeschylus’ trilogy, the only surviving trilogy from classical Greek theater, into one production. Essentially, Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon, King of Mycene, in revenge for his sacrifice of Iphigenia before leaving for the Trojan War. Orestes kills Clytemnestra in revenge for his father’s murder, and the play leads into “the first courtroom drama,” Palmer said, as Athena decides Orestes’ fate.
“The play suggests what I’ve described as a civic resolution,” Palmer said. “Somehow the people, by the very order of their proceedings, bring order to an otherwise savage universe.”
“It’s a creation myth for justice, and a creation myth for the journey of turning fury into forgiveness,” said Collins, an alumnus of the college working professionally in Manhattan. Collins studied the play in his graduate school thesis.
The play represents something special for Palmer, too. It’s his last time directing before retiring from a 36-year tenure in the theater department. The first play he directed at the college was also a classical Greek drama.
“The Oresteia” stays true to its Greek form. The 17 cast members, including a faculty member, wear masks, and the style of acting is very much presentational.
“It’s a style that acknowledges the audience, that addresses the audience, that incorporates the audience in the performance,” Palmer said.
In Collin’s mind, “The Oresteia” tells a primal story – one to which audiences will relate. At its emotional heart, the play tells a story about grief and loss.
Characters in the play react in violence, a reaction audiences might find extreme. A glance at events in the world might reveal otherwise, Palmer said.
“We clearly have an unacceptable degree of savagery in our world. How do we respond to it? Do we respond to it in kind? Or do we find some other solution to the problem?” he said.
Perhaps Aeschylus provided an answer, that thousands of years later, still applies.
“What makes the play so interesting at the end is that the jury is tied. And Athena decrees that from now on, when the jury is tied, err on the side of forgiveness,” Collins said.
“That’s a pretty radical statement,” he said. “And it’s a way of thinking about justice, which I think it sorely missing today.”
Bridges can be reached at 757-275-4934.
Want to go?
When: 7:30 p.m., Feb. 25-27, and 2 p.m., Feb. 28
Where: Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall, 601 Jamestown Road
Tickets: $15/adults, $12/military, $10/groups of 10 or more, $7/students
Tickets available at PBK Hall, open the day of each show from 10 a.m. until 30 minutes after curtain, by calling 221-2674 or at wm.edu/boxoffice.