By Charles Mee

National Institute of Dramatic Art, Young Actor’s Residency 2014

Orestes by Euripides forms part of the well-known story of the curse of the House of Atreus, and the broader trilogy of classic Greek plays known as The Oresteia written by Aeschylus. The Oresteia concerns the end of the curse on the house. A principal theme of the trilogy is the shift from the practice of personal vendetta to a system of litigation. The name derives from the character Orestes, who sets out to avenge his father's murder.

When I started preparing and rehearsing our version of Orestes I decided to frame it in the context of the larger events, and specifically in the light of the origins of the curse that doomed this household for generations; through wars, marriages, affairs and multiple murders.

That curse was ignited when Atreus learned of his brother, Thyestes', adultery with his wife, Aerope. Atreus sought revenge and killed Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and feet. He tricked Thyestes into eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet.

Our version of Orestes deals with the reunion of Agamemnon's children, Electra and Orestes, and their revenge on their mother for the murder of their father; Orestes kills Clytemnestra to avenge the death of Agamemnon, Orestes' father. We subsequently focus on Orestes mental demise as he struggles to cope with his actions as he questions where cycles of revenge should stop?