REVIEWS - December 11, 1998

Electra
Reviewed by Karl Levett
The McCarter Theatre/Donmar Warehouse and Duncan C. Weldon production presented by Eric Krebs, Randall L. Wreghitt, et al, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47 St., NYC, Dec. 3-Jan. 17.
"Shall there killing after killing?"asks Aegisthus (Daniel Oreskes) as he goes to his death. Clearly director David Leveaux would want to steer our thoughts towards Bosnia and Ireland in this modern-dress version by Frank McGuinness of "Electra," Sophocles' classic tragedy of familial revenge and warfare. However, he is upstaged by his own Electra in the person of Zoe Wanamaker. Her performance is of such power and generates such sympathy that we join her in wishing for the retribution she so desperately seeks.
Wanamaker descends into the play holding a mask to her face. Although probably meant to give nod to Sophocles, the mask suggests commedia dell'arte with Wanamaker as a Beckett-style clown. Sporting a whitened face, torn-out hair, and an oversized overcoat, she strides about, trailing tragedy. Mourning hardly becomes this Electra. Pathos is there immediately, quickly reinforced with a relentless urgency that continues to the final curtain. It is an interpretation of remarkable range (vocally and emotionally), evoking both terror and pity.
With Wanamaker as the dynamo driving the production, the other players are at peril to maintain her intensity of performance. Claire Bloom's Clytemnestra, clad head-to-toe in red (a scarlet woman indeed!), easily holds her own and Michael Cumpsty is an Orestes of genuine passion. Marin Hinkle as Electra's sister Chrysothemis, seeks relief from her pressure-cooker sibling, in a restrained but clear rendering. Stephen Spinella, as the old devoted servant, does not always seem at ease, although his big set piece of Orestes' supposed death is well executed. Pat Carroll leads a chorus that in McGuinness's poetic adaptation is definitely partisan to Electra.
The striking setting of Johan Engels includes a dirt floor and a half-buried Greek column. Like Leveaux's directorial concept, it easily straddles the ancient and the modern. It is best, however, as believable background to Wanamaker's uppercut of a performance‹a blow that will leave you reeling.

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Zora Neale Hurston
Reviewed by Cindy Nemser
Presented by the American Place Theatre in association with the National Black Touring Circuit, at The American Place Theatre, 111 W. 46th St., NYC, Oct. 29-Dec. 13.
"I'm a strong colored woman daring to be the best I can be," declares Elizabeth Van Dyke in the title role of "Zora Neale Hurston a Theatrical Biography." The actress makes a powerful case for her character