page_title: The Oresteia in the arts and popular culture
section_title: Theatre
hierarchical_section_title: The Oresteia in the arts and popular culture / Theatre
caption_attribution_description: English: In Libation Bearers (the second play of three in the Oresteia) Orestes explains why he killed his mother in this climatic scene of the drama. This is a still from the MacMillan Films 2014 production of the Oresteia.
context_page_description: Reflections of the Oresteia in the arts and popular culture show the influence of the classic trilogy of tragedies by Aeschylus.
context_section_description: English playwright Steven Berkoff wrote an adaption of Agamemnon in 1977.
  Irish playwright Marina Carr loosely borrows the plot of the first two parts of the Oresteia in her 2002 play, Ariel, which is set in the contemporary Irish midlands.
  French playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre closely based his play The Flies (French:  Les Mouches) on the Oresteia.  He tellingly recreates the intense persecution of Orestes by the Furies, but the reactions of Orestes are transformed by Sartre's existentialist philosophy mixed with material highly suggestive of rebellion.  This undoubtedly because it was written during the Nazi occupation of France.
  American playwright Eugene O'Neill based Mourning Becomes Electra on the Oresteia. It is likewise composed of three plays, with themes corresponding to Aeschylus' trilogy.  It takes place at the end of the American Civil War as opposed to the Trojan War.
  South African theater artist Yael Farber based her piece Molora (Ashes) on the Orestia. She set its themes within the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings of South Africa in the demise of apartheid. Molora was originally produced at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.
  Big Art Group based their participatory serial project The People (2007) on a retelling of the Oresteia using community and ensemble members in a multimedia performance projected on a public building
  American deaf director Ethan Sinnott creates the first deaf translation of the Oresteia's Agamemnon in 2008.  This play was designed specifically for deaf actors to perform for deaf audiences, but also provided captioning for hearing audience members, and makes use of the strong visual-based storytelling of the trilogy of the Oresteia.
  Northwestern University theater group Sit & Spin Productions produced a show in May 2008 called Memory Furies, which used video projection to combine elements from the 1959 French New Wave film Hiroshima mon amour with the Oresteia.
  Action To The Word Theatre Company performed Alexandra Spencer-Jones' second world war-time reworking of Agamemnon at Camden People's Theatre, London in October 2010 directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones
  Action To The Word Theatre Company performed Alexandra Spencer-Jones' 1953 reworking of Agamemnon at St Giles In The Field in May 2011 directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones
  American playwright David Foley created an update of the Oresteia in his play The murders at Argos
  In 2014 MacMillan Films staged the entire Oresteia using Peter Arnott's translation of Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides.
  American director Jonathan Vandenberg conceived and directed Oresteia, an avant-garde work inspired by Aeschylus' trilogy. It first performed at Riverside Theatre in 2011. It was presented as part of the Greek Festival at Classic Stage Company in 2015.
caption: Orestes over his slain mother in the MacMillan Films 2014 Oresteia Staging.
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