This production is for lovers of the broad brushstroke, postmodern approach to theatre creation.

American playwright Charles Mee has taken Euripides’s original work and completely revamped it. He throws in to the mix elements from everywhere; including court transcripts, the poetry of Apollinaire, the TV guide, autopsy reports and pop song lyrics. Scenes criss-cross between past and present time.
The Stables theatre flyer kind of said it all, ‘Orestes 2.0′ is a channel surf between the ancient Greeks and American pop culture.

This is the lowdown of the story in the director’s words.’ The House Of Atreus is a familiar story. A family caught in a cycle of violence they made with their own hands, unable to untangle themselves, passing on homicidal tendencies from generation to generation. Mee’s use of this story as a central narrative exposes humanity as a family, a very dysfunctional family, with governments at the head of the table, and citizens sidelined to sit with the kids’.

During the play one of the characters, I think it is Tyndareus, says, ‘So this is your kind of generation? It speaks nicely…and acts barbarously’.

Kate Revz’s provocative, hard hitting production fort the Cry Havoc theatre company serves Mee’s dark vision well. The cast give full throttle performances. My pick of the cast; Annie Maynard as Elektra, Nicholas Eadie as Menelaus, Anthony Gooley as Pylades, Gemma Pranita as Helen of Troy and Olivia Stambouliah as Nurse 1.

‘Cry Havoc’s’ next production is to be a new interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play ‘Three Sisters’. It will be interesting to see how the company takes on a play with a much more subtle approach to life’s conflicts.

‘Orestes 2.0’ plays the Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross until March 13.