On his return 10 years later, Clytemnestra (Eileen Walsh) is caught between carnal desire for her warrior brute of a husband and her lethal desire Walsh Walmsley to kill him. She rails against Agamemnon before he discards her for the prophetess Cassandra (Nina Bowers) whom he has brought back from Troy as one of the spoils of victory.
In a marvel of condensed dramatisation, the characters narrate events before acting them out.
With only one major prop – a bed – and a rear sliding wall, the drama is left entirely to the actors and Carr’s language, which shimmers in their mouths like fire.
Amy Mae’s atmospheric lighting allows the cast of six to inhabit an intense, intimate epic of bottled rage, violence, sex and revenge.
With performers this good, you don’t need many props beside a few glasses of wine – appropriately blood red – as the production works on the imagination of the audience like a stimulant.
It doesn’t matter how many plays you see about the abuse of patriarchal power, the arrogance of men and the stoicism of women, the Greeks did it all first. This is theatrical storytelling of the highest order.
Girl On An Altar, Kiln Theatre until June 25 Tickets: 020 7328 1000
