The Oresteia Project

Synopsis:

The Ghost of Clytemnestra sleeps beside her Furies. Young God watches. There is a history here: Clytemnestra has lost a daughter, Young God has lost a mother–or rather never had one. Clytemnestra wakes up. She is going to be a problem. Her grief will overwhelm the world and Young God has a nation to build. Clytemnestra demands a sacrifice. Young God has an idea: give her back her daughter and cure her of her grief. 

The Oresteia Project is a devised piece that stages a conversation between The Oresteia and the feminist movement that has taken up Aeschylus's trilogy as foundational to its philosophy and activism using a method we call embodied dramaturgy. Guiding questions: What does it mean to contain/domesticate the “maternal”? Does it remain properly contained in today’s social order? How do we deal with the violence towards the maternal/mothers? How do we, as mothers/parents, daughters/children, sisters/siblings, wives/partners negotiate our relationship to the myth of a “lost” matriarchy? Do we really want to return this “origin”?