Cult Classic not Best Seller

So for those of you who missed an interoffice memo, Cambiare Productions next show will be Orestes. Date and venue vexingly TBA.

Normally it would be Euripides Orestes, but I can tell you pretty convincingly that it will NOT be Euripides Orestes by the time we’re done with it (and that I will consistently be able to SPELL Euripides by the time we open – bless you spell check).

We’ve been saying clever things for some time in story meetings, things like “Fuck Euripides”, and “Euripides Sucks!”. We’re all smart folks promise.

The thing is? Eurpidies write great words. He did. That’s why we want to use them in the first place. Story. Characters. It’s all there except…

Well. They hadn’t gotten around to finishing creating our art form yet, and hadn’t really decided to have any action ON stage. Full credit to them, I mean we weren’t that far removed from the whole thing being a concert for the human voice anyway, so they were innovating a whole lot more than I ever will. But I want my theatre to be more active. I’m not dead yet ergo my theatre shouldn’t be either.

Which works for us.

This is our second adventure in Greek Mashup-land having thrown four texts in a blender to create a very well received Elektra hybrid two years ago. That was of course before there really was an “us”. Will and I were working on our second show together, and it was mostly Will driving creation with the cast (including me as the not-normally-in-this-show Agamemnon) helping fit the pieces together, and nailing the dance that was added.

But here two years and two and half shows later  we know a little bit about what we want and how we work together, and most importantly? What our specific weaknesses as producers and storytellers are.

So we’re taking Euripides apart. Character by character. Scene by scene. Motif by motif. We will rebuild it in such a way that Orestes participates in his own story, and is not simply a commentator on the actions around him. There will be very real consequences for the humans in this moments, and in our one true betrayal of Euripides… Apollo  isn’t going to save them from themselves.

These characters will own their strengths and weaknesses in all their mythic size. No matter the eventual style of the narrative.