Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brie Larson\u2019s Elektra strides on to the barren stage, sporting a buzz-cut and a Bikini Kill T-shirt, seizes a microphone and begins her lament. \u201cI will not let go this man or this mourning,\u201d she declares vehemently, pacing the revolve as it spins her in circles, spitting her contempt for her mother (Clytemnestra) and stepfather (Aegisthus) and raging at the world that has left her, a woman, unable to avenge the death of her beloved father, Agamemnon.A chorus of women plead with her \u2014 \u201cwhy let grief eat you alive?\u201d they sing \u2014 and her sister Chrysothemis (Mari\u00e8me Diouf) picks her way through the dark to reason with her. But Elektra is a woman beyond reason, hammered into extremis by her hurt, and this is her world as imagined by director Daniel Fish: an uncompromising production for an uncompromising character.It\u2019s the second bold attempt on the London stage this week to return afresh to Sophocles, to rediscover his work in the light of our own fractured world, to meet ancient Greek theatre practice with contemporary equivalents. And, as with the Old Vic\u2019s Oedipus \u2014 which features another Hollywood star, Rami Malek, in the title role \u2014 it proves only fitfully successful. Here, underneath a pile-up of ideas, the story itself gets buried.The vision is raw and austere, with Elektra stalking the stage, mic in hand, punching out her words, sometimes with bitter wit, like a sardonic, alienated punk performer at a gig or poetry slam. Her rage and sense of impotence speak for many in today\u2019s world: the word \u201cno\u201d bursts out in singsong every time she utters it (a response, perhaps, to the character\u2019s strange screams in the original); she reports her mother\u2019s words, contemptuously, through a distorted mic. It\u2019s a bruising, bruised performance and Larson, making her West End debut, has on her side poet Anne Carson\u2019s diamond-sharp translation: \u201cAlone, the whole poised force of my life is nothing against this.\u201d The chorus too are great, mournful in silk, expressing their concern in composer Ted Hearne\u2019s eerie, haunting harmonies.But the difficulty with extremity in drama is that, over time, it produces diminishing returns. Elektra is an unyielding character, but here her monomania proves increasingly alienating rather than inviting understanding, feeling or pity. And while there\u2019s sense in trapping us in her head and giving her control of the narrative, it means the other characters, given no microphones, are banished to the sidelines and fight to achieve definition or even to be heard. The play\u2019s narrative and its debate about justice are lost; in one key exchange a character stands upstage, back to the audience, becoming completely inaudible.Stockard Channing\u2019s dignified Clytemnestra explains that Agamemnon sacrificed Elektra\u2019s sister, Iphigenia, but this barely registers \u2014 not only with Elektra, but in the staging. If you don\u2019t know the back-story you\u2019d struggle to grasp it. This detracts from the show\u2019s power, as does the fact that Elektra\u2019s brother Orestes (Patrick Vaill) is skimpily delineated. The supporting cast, fine actors all, look marooned. Meanwhile, Fish makes some baffling decisions \u2014 at one point drenching the stage in dry ice so that not only can we not hear the dialogue, we can\u2019t see the speakers either, or suspending a blimp over the stage. It\u2019s a study in trauma, rage, alienation, but a bit like its central character, it gets trapped in its own world.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606To April 12, elektraplay.com\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brie Larson\u2019s Elektra strides on to the barren stage, sporting a buzz-cut and a Bikini Kill T-shirt, seizes a microphone and begins her lament. \u201cI will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-195584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195586,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195584\/revisions\/195586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}