Whatever you may think of Daniel Fish’s bizarre staging of Sophocles’ Elektra, Brie Larson shows herself to be not just a movie star but the real deal on stage as well. In a buzzcut, Bikini Kill T-shirt and a microphone, Larson spends most of this production addressing us from downstage left, a mesmerizing standup tragedienne.
It’s a mannered but powerful performance of Anne Carson’s text, itself a mannered but powerful translation from the original Greek. The choice of “Elektra” rather than “Electra” is a conscious rejection of centuries of tradition. And I found the strangeness of this production a welcome reminder that the ancient Greeks are deeply foreign to our modern understanding.
The odd staging includes a blimp suspended above the stage, a curtain covering the back wall that rises and falls at random moments, a revolve with a stage light, a paint gun, other things I couldn’t quite identify. Much of this is incomprehensible. The paint gun gradually stains everyone’s costume with an inky black paint, suggestive of the dark desire for vengeance that drives the plot.
