Electra, which version should you choose?

Killing a mother more than 2000 years ago and still having the murder remembered is not the norm. And knowing the three versions of the crime is not the norm either. And if, in addition, it is written by three authors of classical Greek theatre - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - this crime will remain in the memory forever. Now, the versions of each one converge in the piece presented at the Lliure by Alícia Gorina and Albert Arribas, Electra, a show that goes through, in an hour and a half, the core of the three shows.

The facts are clear: Electra and Orestes killed their mother, Clytemnestra. However, if we ask ourselves about the circumstances that led to the crime, the explanations diverge: “We have taken the essential part of what separates each tragedy,” says the director. The show is the three reduced versions of each of Electra’s tragedies, one for Aeschylus, one for Sophocles and one for Euripides, which in an exercise of style explain the same myth three times.

For the Greeks, shadows are the testimony of people's souls" Alicia Gorina Director

“The emphasis is on the how and the implications of each way of doing things, both for and against,” says playwright Albert Ribas. The same tragedy told, however, from three different points of view that, beyond narrating a murder, are also a reflection of the origin of the theatrical genre: “By condensing each of the pieces into 30-minute “microfilms,” we delve into what it means to do theater,” says Arribas.

The fact, a murder, is the only thing that remains imperishable in the three versions, while the space, the lighting, the costumes and the interpretation are adapted to each of the creators' eras. With Aeschylus, the tragedy bears the name Les coèfores. With Sophocles, Electra is already the protagonist and in Euripides' tragedy, the main character is deformed and approached from another perspective.

The actors in the piece, who are part of the new IT Teatre LLiure project, are graduates of the Instituto del Teatro. A decision that is not trivial: “The fact of working with people who are starting their professional career is related to the will of the piece. This establishes a similarity between the journey through the origin of theatre, which the show intends to follow, and actors who are starting their careers,” says the director.

The journey from one work to the next is how Western theatre is built" Alicia Gorina Director

Movement is another character in the play: “In Aeschylus’ tragedy we can sense the origin of theatre from archaic rituals, in which physical work becomes relevant,” says Albert. In this way, movement becomes an actor who participates in the show, dialogues with the other performers and reveals what only the shadows in a crime dare to reveal. They are another element of the murder committed by the two brothers: “For the Greeks, shadows are the testimony of people’s souls,” says the director. As a witness to the crime, the physicality of the actors becomes guilty of the murder.

Gorina's Electra can be seen at the Espai LLiure from Thursday until 23/03. It will tour different municipalities in the Barcelona area as part of the Reverberacions IT Teatre Lliure project. A reconstruction of the three versions of the tragedy that sentenced two brothers and, in doing so, went through the origins of the theatrical genre: "The journey from one work to the other is how Western theatre is built," says Gorina.