Eumenides : Vengeful snarling Furies are especially good.

 

Too bad the Harper government didn’t see this production of Eumenides, the third part of Aeschylus’ Greek tragedy the Oresteia. Witnessing the transformation of the Eumenides – AKA the Erinyes or Furies, Greek deities of vengeance – from bloodthirsty avengers of wrongdoing to acceptors of a kinder, more just way of dealing with human error might have given the government second thought about its tough-on-crime approach.

MPs would also have enjoyed the show. The graduating class of Ottawa Theatre School acquitted itself well in presenting the story of Orestes’ trial by the gods for murdering his mother Clytemnestra who, in turn, had slain her husband and Orestes’ father Agamemnon.

The snarling, vengeful Furies were especially good: not the kinds of folks you’d want as enemies. Director Jodi Essery also teased out the incisive power of the language in Ted Hughes’ translation/adaptation of the original work.

Some of the performers seemed overly conscious of the audience (cast as Greek citizens we are, after all, part of the show), and that inhibited them.

There will be two more productions by this class during the academic year.

Eumenides ends Nov. 24.

Tickets ($15) at the door or http://theeumenides.eventbrite.ca. The show starts at 8 p.m.

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