I am promised by the Director’s Notes that this is “the first-ever UK production” of this version of Elektra – bold.  But I like daring productions and I like it especially when it’s talented people taking the risks.

The script of Ezra Pound and Rudd Fleming is tricky.  The distancing of the action in the slave-age Deep South requires accents that are mostly solid and are never distractingly questionable.  The passages of original Greek are even trickier; I remain unconvinced by the director’s defence of them as “a secret language of suffering”: the occasional outburst works, but the long tracts are, needless to say, meaningless.

However, the quality of the acting at least means they are well delivered.  Sophie Crawford stars as Elektra, harrowing in lament, unsettling in joy.  It is no discredit to the rest of the cast that she outshines them all, as Rozzi Nicholson-Lailey and Dominc Biddle both give excellent performances as her siblings.  Brid Arnstein is a suitably self-assured and callous Klytemnestra, while it is a shame that Arthur Sturridge doesn’t match his confident and earnest portrayal of the Tutor with a more developed Aegisthus in the final scene.

However, the centrepiece of this play is the chorus, which captures and translates the role of the original that is so crucial in all Attic drama.  Through scripting, direction and performance the chorus are the core of a richness and intensity of feeling that I have never before seen evoked in a performance of Greek tragedy.  Hatty Carman as Musical Director has done a superb job bringing the musicality of the Greek chorus back to life: her original score is thrilling and the brilliance of the chorus leaders Remi and Femi Oriogun-Williams ensure that Carman’s musical creativity is not wasted.

Clever costume choices mark the uniformity of the chorus and individualise characters.  Such simplicity would have allowed for more on-stage costume changes  – it was a little disconcerting when actors marched off stage mid-scene – and more developed lighting design could have aided this.  Indeed, as a Lighting Designer and Assistant are credited, the repetitive contrast of full flood vs. spotlight could have been more varied.

And yet my pickiness should not obscure the fact that this is a commendably bold project, not just another tragic rehashing of a Greek classic.  I hope you’ve booked because it’s already sold out.  Elektra is a successful experiment – what else is student theatre for?