Cape May Stage, South Jersey’s premiere Equity theatre, is thrilled to present a staged reading of an adaptation of one of the oldest surviving theatrical works known. Robert Auletta’s Agamemnon: Redux will play Monday, September 24th at 7 p.m. at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse in downtown Cape May.
Experimental theatre at its most raw, this modern adaptation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon envelops an audience as freshly as it did over two millennia ago. Written circa 458 BC, this classic is set just after the fall of Troy. King Agamemnon, conqueror of Troy, returns to his palace in Argos, bringing with him as the spoils of war the beautiful young prophetess and daughter of the defeated King Priam, Cassandra. Agamemnon’s wife, Queen Clytemnestra, still burns with the memory of Agamemnon’s sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia, in an attempt to sway the gods against Troy. She does not welcome Agamemnon home in a traditional way; instead, she lays out a sacred crimson carpet for him. Revealing his arrogance and hubris to the people of Argos, Agamemnon walks on the carpet and enters the palace. Clytemnestra then tries to lure Cassandra inside, but Cassandra does not move. After some goading from the chorus, Cassandra calls upon Apollo, lamenting the tragedies of the house of Atreus and prophesizing Agamemnon’s and her own imminent death at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Cassandra enters the palace and tragedy ensues. Starring Peter Rogan, Sarah Wharton, Anna Frankl-Duvall, Rebecca Nelson, Kenneth Ryan, and Jeremy Smith, this modern take on one of the theatre’s most celebrated and studied works will leave you intrigued, fascinated, and pondering the follies of modern man.
Auletta’s plays have been produced by many theaters, including: The Yale Repertory theater, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, The American Repertory Theater including his original play Rundown, as well as his adaptations of Aeschylus’ The Orestia and Moliere’s Tartuffe. He also helped open the Market Theater in Cambridge, MA with his original play Amazons. In New York City many of his one-acts were produced at the West Bank Downstairs Theater Bar. Two of his one-act plays Stops@Virgins, were awarded a Village Voice Obie award for distinguished playwriting in 1983. His modern version of Sophocles’ Ajax, directed by Peter Sellars in 1986, was performed in America at the Kennedy Center, the La Jolla Playhouse, and to great acclaim in many theaters in Europe.
Part of Cape May Stage’s acclaimed Second Stage Series, Agamemnon: Redux will run Monday, September 24th at 7 p.m. at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse at the corner of Bank & Lafayette Streets in downtown Cape May. Tickets are $20. Adults, $15 seniors and students. Call (609) 884-1341 for reservations and information or visit the theatre’s website, www.capemaystage.org.