Electra

Sophocles, Nick Payne

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781849430616
• eBook ISBN: 9781849433679
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

When a young Electra's father is murdered by her mother, her world changes irrevocably. Ten years on, bound by grief and unwilling to forgive, Electra surrenders to an all-consuming desire for revenge that propels her towards a bloody and terrifying conclusion. This is a haunting new version by Nick Payne of Sophocles' tragic masterpiece, Electra.

Characters

STROPHIUS

ORESTES

ELECTRA

CHORUS

CHRYSOTHEMIS

CLYTEMNESTRA

All sing.

CHORUS: Holy light

feast of appalling pain

steal away this shame

by first flame of day.

Cunning was the teacher,

passion was the killer.

Enter STROPHIUS and ORESTES.

STROPHIUS: Your father was the most extraordinary leader.

Everyone respected him.

A few days after you were born, he insisted upon showing

you to every single one of his men.

Some of the men that served under your father

were brutes.

Enormous great beasts.

Not a sentimental bone in their bodies.

But when they saw you, they melted.

He looks just like you, they said.

He’s got your eyes, they said, your ears.

He adored you and they adored him.

Your father was loyal and honourable.

When Paris seduced Helen, your uncle, Menelaus,

sought the support of his brother.

But before your father and his men were able to sail to

Troy, Artemis demanded appeasement.

The right to sail in exchange for the life of your sister.

Your father said simply that he would not, that he could not.

But placed in an untenable position, your father had no

choice but to sacrifice the young Iphigenia.

Your mother was distraught. Inconsolable.

But the fate of Iphigenia lay not in the hands of your

father, but in the laps of the Gods.

When the war was finally over and your father

returned home, your mother and Aegisthus

took his life almost immediately.

Calculated and cool.

It was your sister, Electra, who gave you to me, that night,

the night of your father’s murder.

ORESTES: I remember.

STROPHIUS: She had you slung over her shoulder.

She kept calling out my name.

The pair of us were running around in circles

trying to find one another.

The place was a maze.

Is a maze.

Corridor after corridor after corridor.

When we finally found one another, and your sister

handed you over to me, neither of us

could get you to say a word.

We fled.

That night, you and I.

I took you as far away as was feasible.

Still, you refused to speak to me.

I tried addressing you every day for several weeks.

Nothing.

Your lips were seemingly sealed.

For weeks this went on!

And then you disappeared.

The two of us had finally found a suitable home,

and you vanished.

Gone.

Then, a week or so later, you returned.

You walked into our home and you said, hello.

Hello, you said. That was it.

You sat down at the dining table and

I offered you a slice of bread and you started to eat.

ORESTES: I can remember that bread.

It was delicious.

STROPHIUS: Why don’t we go over it all one more time?

ORESTES: Yes.

STROPHIUS: I’ll enter first.

I’ll ask to see your mother and I’ll tell her that you have

been in an accident.

I’ll tell her that you have been found.

Drowned.

I’ll tell her that someone is due to follow shortly

with the ashes.

With any luck, she’ll i...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Characters