Word: aegisthus
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There is no doubt that Sartre’s original adaptation of the Greek mythology is brilliant. The play tells the story of Orestes and his sister. After an affair between their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus results in the death of their father Agamemnon, the siblings avenge him by killing the responsible couple, who had taken over the kingdom of Argos, imposing their guilt upon the people in the form of perpetual mourning and black clothing. Sartre cleverly ties this in with existentialism. The guilt does not belong to the people but they are forced to express...
...both as the God Apollo, and, with more stage-time, as a nameless ‘Old Man’ (a well-characterized interlocutor for the other characters), while the ever-nimble, well-toned, and intense Liam R. Martin ’06 turns in an excellent performance as Aegisthus; Mary E. Birnbaum ’07 does an admirable job filling a pair of different, lesser roles...
...wife Clytemnestra (also played by Smith) has taken a lover, Aegisthus (also played by Zakkai). Clytemnestra bears an implacable hatred toward Agamem non for the blood sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia. The king had courted the gods' favoring winds for the voy age to Troy. Agamemnon and Cassandra enter the House of Atreus to be brutally butchered by Clytemnestra...
...makes for some restive or torpid listening depending on the playgoer's mood. The basic story line is intact. With his fleet becalmed on the way to Troy, Agamemnon (W.B. Brydon) sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to win the gods' favor. His embittered wife Clytemnestra takes a lover, Aegisthus, who murders Agamemnon upon his return from the war. The dead king's son, Orestes, goaded to revenge by his sister Electra, proceeds to murder his mother and Aegisthus. Rabe has drastically minimized Electra's role, but he provides two Clytemnestras, possibly to differentiate the mother...
...particular hell is this: while Ezra Mannon (Agamemnon) is away at war, his wife Christine (Clytemnestra) takes a lover, Adam Brant (Aegisthus). Daughter Lavinia (Electra) adores her father, hates her mother and is smitten with Adam. Ezra's return results in homicide and suicide. When the killing ends, Lavinia locks herself in the ancestral mansion to placate the ghosts of her forebears in solitary, lifelong penance...