Orestes 2.1 runs May 14th-16th

ORESTES 2.1

a slight modification of an adaptation
by Charles L. Mee

WHEN/WHERE

FREDERICTON:
May 14th-16th (Thurs-Sat)
Charlotte Street Arts Centre Auditorium (2nd Floor)
732 Charlotte Street
Tickets available at the door.
$12/adult; $8/student
Curtain time is 8pm.

Please be advised: This play contains mature language and subject matter.

here cover photo

Performed by

William – Matthew Spinney
Nod – Brad Young
Orestes – Michael Holmes-Lauder
Forensics Expert -> Tapemouth Man – John Ball
Nurse #1 – Rebekah Chassé
Nurse #3 – Emily Carter
Electra – Meghan Loch
Helen (and Hermione) – Elizabeth Goodyear
Menelaus – Ian Murphy
Tyndareus – Andrew Jones
Pylades – Jordan Dashner

Directed by Scott Shannon
Technical Direction by Nicholas Cole
Poster and Logo design by Alberto White

ABOUT THE PLAY

Orestes is an Ancient Greek myth about matricide, incestuous innuendo, the meaning of friendship, and happy endings written by the tragedian Euripides. The story goes: Orestes, driven mad after murdering his own mother for having slept with another man while his father/her husband (Agamemnon) was away fighting the Trojan War, is seeking a way out of town to escape the death sentence handed to him and his sister, Electra. Orestes seems to be willing to go to any lengths to make sure he and his closer-than-you-should-be-with-your sister are able to run free. Luckily for all concerned, Apollo arrives just in time to provide everyone a happy ending before anything truly disastrous occurs (aside from all the death that began the tale).

Orestes 2.1 takes this classical story and throws it in the midst of a pseudo-mental hospital with diabolical Nurses, merging modern and classical interests, and allowing characters like Tapemouth Man to share in this story where a happy ending just doesn’t look likely.

This Nasty Shadows Theatre Co. production is actually a slightly modified version of the play Orestes 2.0 by Charles L. Mee, which grew out of Euripides’ original play but is a composite of many different sources as well as original writings:
http://www.charlesmee.org/html/orestes.html

Having cut some characters, shifted lines around, re-written the ending, and added various other nuances all in the interests of experimenting with Mee’s text, as Mee himself openly suggests be done, Nasty Shadows has created quite a different story from the original script while still maintaining much of the text itself. The venture was a success and yielded a provocative piece of theatre.

The cast of eleven and the technicians are comprised of local Fredericton talent.

About Charles L. Mee

Charles L. Mee (or Chuck) is an accomplished historian turned playwright. While he had a love for theatre in his youth, he basically disregarded it for 20 years before returning. His work is known for its collage aspect, but is strikingly original. He mixes wickedly witty dialogue with slapstick comedy and combines anarchic plot lines with classical forms and characters. The results are uncompromising, brutally honest portraits of cotemporary society.

In Mee’s own words:
“I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too presentable. My plays are broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off in sickening turns. That feels good to me. It feels like my life. It feels like the world.

And then I like to put this—with some sense of struggle remaining—into a classical form, a Greek form, or a beautiful dance theatre piece, or some other effort at civilization. ”

Please visit Charles Mee’s web site:
http://www.charlesmee.org/

Interview on YouTube about one of Mee’s more recent plays, Under Construction.
[2:49 in length]

Interview on YouTube about Mee’s collaboration with Steven Greenblatt and the re-writing of a lost Shakespeare play.
[9:05 in length]

Comments/questions/information contact Scott Shannon
email – rshannon@unb.ca
phone – 476-6049

Or, leave a comment here on the site.