Special Delivery

If I was blind, this play would have bored me to death. There were no action scenes, no explosions, not even a change of the set. The most visually exciting thing that happened was when Orestes sprinkled "his own" ashes on the ground.

That being said, I loved this play. 

The main reason I enjoyed it so much was the delivery. In more ways than I initially noticed, the play kept grabbing my attention because of the way that the content was delivered. The lecture before the play, and the background we've learned about in class, helped in establishing Greek culture. The knowledge of the culture, and the hints at the customs we were about to see gave the play some artistic freedom. 

For example, the characters stayed true to Greek culture in the script, mostly, which made it more natural for the actors to be flipping through a magazine or looking at themselves in a cell phone camera, giving them more personality without adding more dialogue.

This ties in to another solid example of delivery; humor. For the first few minutes I thought I was in for a long night if Electra would never stop complaining. Even though she never did, I eventually laughed and it was better from then on. The first time I remember laughing was when Orestes uses mimesis (look it up) while Tutor is speaking because he knew what he was going to say.

The drum set was also a powerful delivery method which helped set the tone and pace of the script.

Tying all of this together, my favorite part was when Tutor told the story of Orestes' "death". The drum set, his humor, and the way he told the stories with gesture and a building voice all worked to create a rousing change of pace.

Of course, this then led to more grieving by Electra.