I want to preface this by saying that I am fairly ambivalent towards this production, it definitely has it's issues but I do think people are unnecessarily slating it. It does have a myriad of problems, which we'll get into, but it also has some interesting things to say that I think may have gotten lost in translation, although not by Anne Carson who did the beautiful translation that we hear on the stage.

Warning: This includes spoilers for the entire show ,although at this point the show’s run has ended and frankly I doubt this will get a rerun.

Act One: The Story

I had gotten a lot of adverts on Instagram for the show, I was drawn in by the marketing of an "electric punk performance". As a punk theatre nerd obsessed with Greek mythology, this was right up my alley. But that's where the pitfall lies, it's kind of a niche performance. As someone who listens to bikini kill I immediately understood this is going to be very feminist, and explore Elektra's role in this revenge story. There is a point in the play where Elektra decides she will kill her mother and Aegisthus, spraying this inky black liquid across her chest, crossing out the word Bikini so only Kill is left. A bit on the nose but it is a powerful statement, one that I really liked. I was interested to see if they were going to continue this female rage narrative but ultimately they stuck to the source material and had Orestes kill instead.
This is where things fall apart for me, mainly because it feels like this show was supposed to be in line with a lot of female centred Greek myth retellings that have been popular in recent times, and I think that's where they were headed but it ultimately feels like a cop out. You having this building despair and anger with Elektra throughout the entire play that ultimately goes nowhere, unlike a lot of modern media about female rage you don't get the pay off, the satisfying "good for her" ending that I expected. The crazy climax of her deciding to become a murderer is ultimately wasted as the deed falls to her brother. Now, I know that this is in line with the source material. Ancient Greek plays rarely have women commit actual murder, it's why Clytemnestra is so vilified and demonised. She is one of the few women to actually murder with her own hands, most women will poison, or as with Elektra, get someone else to do the deed. However it still doesn’t quite feel right for what was supposed to be a punk, feminist version of Electra.

Act Two: Accessibility

There's two main issues with the accessibility of this production, firstly is the more "intellectual" accessibility, which is how easy it is to understand from the perspective of someone who may not be overly familiar with Greek mythology or Greek plays. And secondly is the physical accessibility. Accessibility is the main problem with this play in my eyes.

Scene One: Intellectual Accessibility
One thing I think this adaptation does really well is that you don't need prior knowledge of the source materials to understand the play, but a lot of people have been calling this play pretentious, kind of for good reason too. A lot of it has to do with some actions they use throughout the play. Banging their chest at the mention of Orestes, spitting at the mention of Aegisthus, the elongated “Nooooo” that Elektra does every time she says the word. These are choices that I am mainly confused about more than anything. What are the purpose of these actions? It feels almost ritualistic but it doesn’t contribute anything to the ending. The ending ultimately feels so disconnected from everything that’s been built up because it doesn’t incorporate any of the most interesting and unique elements of the show.

Scene Two: Physical Accessibility
I am hard of hearing and neurodivergent, which for me means I don't wear my hearing aid in loud, crowded spaces. I can get very easily overwhelmed by noise so I didn't wear my hearing aid that day. However Brie Larson was the only one with a mic, meaning I could hear her loud and clear, but she completely drowned out the chorus and the other actors. I also have mild auditory processing issues so the monologue about Orestes death was very hard to follow as he entered this commentator like cadence where he barely took breaths. Either having no mics or everyone mic-ed up would've solved this problem very easily. Having Brie Larson with the only mic was another choice that I just don’t understand.
Also I would like to mention that there was a part where smoke fills the room, they continue to use smoke and essentially smoke out the audience. If you were asthmatic you probably would've had an attack because there was so much smoke! That wasn't warned about at all either so it would've taken you completely by surprise.

Act Three: Conclusion

There was a lot of weird choices that didn’t translate well. For instance, why was there a blimp hanging from the ceiling? There was no mention of it and it didn’t have anything to do with the play. I imagine this play was supposed to be layered and have a lot of symbolism to it, maybe I’m not intellectual enough to understand it but it definitely fell short. The acting was great, I think the actors did a fantastic job and the translation is beautiful, it was just the production aspect of the play that was the issue here. The play could’ve been great if they didn’t try to include all of these odd things that didn’t really add anything to the story. I wanted to love this so badly but unfortunately I mostly feel baffled at the choices made.