'Elektra' is 'fun' Greek tragedy

ELEKTRA, outdoors, northeast of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, or in Libby Gardner Hall if the weather is inclement, University of Utah, Saturday and Sunday, 581-7100. Running time: two hours (no intermission).

A frolicking chorus, a generous amount of gore and a lively translation of the original script enliven the University of Utah's production of Elektra at the 36th annual Classical Greek Theatre Festival.

Hugh Hanson directs, James T. Svendsen is dramaturge, David Sharp composed the score and also plays the dulcimer. Kenneth McLeish did the translation from Euripides and Hanson adapted it further.

The play opens in the courtyard in front of a rustic farmhouse. Members of the chorus — all female — come onstage, singing and taunting each other with the question: Is it better to be married or single? "Single girl, she goes to the store and buys," they sing. "Married girl, she rocks the cradle and cries."

Enter Elektra, who has the worst of both lives. Born a princess, she's been married off to a peasant because her stepfather and mother killed her father, Agamemnon. They can't afford for Elektra to have a royal son who might avenge his grandfather's death to become king.

Meanwhile, Elektra's farmer husband is too respectful of the princess to force himself on her. So she remains a virgin. No baby to rock, no money to shop. Elektra misses her father and her exiled brother, Orestes, but she seems most furious at her loss of status.

This is a story of vengeance and family troubles echoing down the generations. No sooner do Elektra and Orestes attempt to get justice than the gods show up to laugh at the silly humans who have cursed themselves once again.

Nicol Razon is lovely as Elektra. Her singing is as nice as her acting. Barbara Smith is droll as the mother, Klytemnestra. The others — Nicholas Zaharias as Orestes, Steve Jackson as the farmer, Jesse Harward as the old man and Anthony Gaskins as Pylades — are fine for student actors.

Over the past three decades, the U.'s theater department has made Greek theater more and more accessible. This Appalachian-themed Elektra may be the most "fun" tragedy yet.

Sensitivity rating: a few swear words, off-stage violence resulting in bloody bodies on stage.

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