Mourning Becomes Electra
From Aeschylus’ Oresteia to Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra: Text, Adaptation and Performance[1]
©Alison Burke, The Open University, UK
Introduction
The Royal National Theatre’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra at the Royal National Theatre (London 2003–4) downplayed the relationship between O’Neill’s trilogy and Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Rather than following the stage directions of O’Neill, which are evocative of classical staging conventions, the RNT production sought to foreground O’Neill’s theatrical legacy of nineteenth-century melodrama and fusion of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century realism and expressionism. Moreover, the director Howard Davies presented a political interpretation of O’Neill’s text that focused on changing political worlds. In so doing, the production offered an innovative view of O’Neill that located him within his theatrical context, rather than juxtaposing him with his classical source material. However, Davies’ directorial interpretation raises interesting questions about O’Neill’s relationship with his classical source material. The main aim of this article therefore is to re-examine the relationship between O’Neill (1888–1953) and Aeschylus.
To this end, this article divides into three main parts: part one explores O’Neill’s understanding and use of classical material; part two examines O’Neill’s stagecraft in the light of his own theatrical context and his use of classical staging conventions; and part three forms a review of the RNT production. The critical argument in the final section is that O’Neill’s response to Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and indeed all the classical House of Atreus plays,[2] is derived from an interpretation of the mythic material that is shaped by psychoanalytical factors. In particular, O’Neill’s interest and participation in psychoanalysis shapes his character-orientated response to the Atridae myth. Accordingly, O’Neill’s primary focus is seen to be domestic and
©Alison Burke, The Open University, UK
Introduction
The Royal National Theatre’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra at the Royal National Theatre (London 2003–4) downplayed the relationship between O’Neill’s trilogy and Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Rather than following the stage directions of O’Neill, which are evocative of classical staging conventions, the RNT production sought to foreground O’Neill’s theatrical legacy of nineteenth-century melodrama and fusion of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century realism and expressionism. Moreover, the director Howard Davies presented a political interpretation of O’Neill’s text that focused on changing political worlds. In so doing, the production offered an innovative view of O’Neill that located him within his theatrical context, rather than juxtaposing him with his classical source material. However, Davies’ directorial interpretation raises interesting questions about O’Neill’s relationship with his classical source material. The main aim of this article therefore is to re-examine the relationship between O’Neill (1888–1953) and Aeschylus.
To this end, this article divides into three main parts: part one explores O’Neill’s understanding and use of classical material; part two examines O’Neill’s stagecraft in the light of his own theatrical context and his use of classical staging conventions; and part three forms a review of the RNT production. The critical argument in the final section is that O’Neill’s response to Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and indeed all the classical House of Atreus plays,[2] is derived from an interpretation of the mythic material that is shaped by psychoanalytical factors. In particular, O’Neill’s interest and participation in psychoanalysis shapes his character-orientated response to the Atridae myth. Accordingly, O’Neill’s primary focus is seen to be domestic and
References: Alexander, D. (1992) Eugene O’Neill’s Creative Struggle: The Decisive Decade, 1924-1933 (Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press). Atkinson, B. (1989 [1931]) ‘Strange Images of Death in Eugene O’Neill’s Masterpiece’, New York Times, 27 October 1931; republished in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan). Benchley, R. (1989 [1931]) ‘Good, Old-Fashioned, Spine-Curling Melodrama’, New Yorker, 7 November 1931; republished in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan). Berkowitz, G. M. (1992) American Drama of the Twentieth Century (London: Longman). Berlin, N. (1989), (ed.), Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan). Bigsby, C. W. E. (1989 [1982]) ‘Inner and Outer Worlds’, in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan); first published in C. W. E. Bigsby (1982), Twentieth-Century American Drama: I, 1900-1940 (Cambridge). Billington, M. (2003) ‘Helen Mirren Turns Waspish Adulterer’, Guardian, 29 November 2003. Black, S. A. (1999) Eugene O’Neill Beyond Mourning and Tragedy (New Haven & London: Yale University Press). Brown, J. M. (1989 [1931]) ‘Eugene O’Neill’s Exciting Trilogy is Given an Excellent Production’, New York Post, 27 October 1931; republished in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan). Clapp, S. (2003) ‘Julie, Do You Want Me: A Brilliant Reworking of Miss Julie Revives the Play. And Electra’s Still Electric’, Observer, 30 November 2003. Cole, S. Guettel (1998) ‘Domesticating Artemis’, in S. Blundell and M. Williamson (eds) The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece (London: Routledge). Dawe, R. D. (1963) ‘Inconsistency of Plot and Character in Aeschylus’, PCPhS, 9 Denniston, J Easterling, P. E. (1972) ‘Presentation of Character in Aeschylus’, G&R, 20: 3–19. Egri, P. (1988) ‘The Electra Complex of Puritan Morality and the Epic Ambition of O’Neillian Tragedy’, in Shyamal Bagchee (ed.) Perspectives on O’Neill: New Essays (British Columbia: University of Victoria). Ervine, St John (1989 [1948]) ‘He Dares Comparison with Aeschylus’, in Normand Berlin (ed.) (1989) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan); extract from ‘Counsels of Despair’, Times Literary Supplement, 10 April 1948. Falk, D. V. (1982) Eugene O’Neill and the Tragic Tension (New York: Gordian Press). Garvie, A. F. (1986) Aeschylus Choephori (Oxford: Clarendon Press). Green, R. (2002) ‘Towards a reconstruction of performance style’, in P. E. Easterling and E. Hall (eds) Greek and Roman Actors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Hall, P. (2000) Exposed by the Mask (London: Oberon Books). Hammond, N. G. L. (1965) ‘Personal Freedom and its Limitations in the Oresteia’, JHS, 85: 42–45. Heilman, R. B. (1989 [1973]) ‘Melodrama of Disaster’, in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan); extract (1973) from The Iceman, The Arsonist and The Troubled Agent (Seattle). Kitto, H. D. F. (1961) Greek Tragedy (London: Methuen). Knox, B. (1982) Introductory essay in Robert Fagles’ translation of Oedipus The King (Harmondsworth: Penguin). Lesky, A. (1965) Greek Tragedy, tr. H. A. Fanfort (London: Barnes & Noble). Lloyd-Jones, H. (1962) ‘The Guilt of Agamemnon’, Classical Quarterly, 12: 187–99. March, J. (2001) Sophocles Electra (Warminster: Aris & Phillips). McDonald, M. (2003) The Living Art of Greek Tragedy (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press). Murray, G. (1940) Aeschylus The Creator of Tragedy (Oxford: Clarendon Press). Neitzsche, F. (1993 [1872]) The Birth of Tragedy, tr. Michael Tanner, (Harmondsworth: Penguin). Pelling, C. (1989) (ed.) Characterization and individuality in Greek literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press). Podlecki, A. J. (1989) (ed.) Aeschylus Eumenides (Warminster: Aris & Phillips). Pomeroy, S. B. (1975) Goddesses, Whores, Wives, & Slaves (London: Pimlico). Rhem, R. (2003) Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy and the Modern World (London: Duckworth). —— (2002) The Play of Space (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press). Robinson, J. A. (1998) ‘The Middle Plays’, in Michael Manheim (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Sommerstein, A. H. (1996) Aeschylean Tragedy (Bari: Levante). —— (1989) (ed.) Aeschylus Eumenides (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Törnqvist, E. (1998) ‘O’Neill’s Philosophical and Literary Paragons’, in Michael Manheim (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Wainscott, R. (1998) ‘Notable American Stage Productions’, in Michael Manheim (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Weismann, P. (1960) Modern Drama, 3 (Toronto: A.M. Hakkert). Wikander, M. H. (1998) ‘O’Neill and the Cult of Sincerity’, in Michael Manheim (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O’Neill (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Williams, R. (1989 [1966]) ‘Private Tragedy’, in Normand Berlin (ed.) Eugene O’Neill: Three Plays (London: Macmillan); extract (1966) from chapter ‘Private Tragedy’, in Modern Tragedy (London; Stanford, California). [ 3 ]. It is worthwhile noting that O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra premiered nine years before Gilbert Murray’s influential book (1940) Aeschylus The Creator Of Tragedy. [ 8 ]. Modern difficulties with O’Neill’s racial stereotyping were evident in Susannah Clapp’s review of the RNT (2003) production ‘Julie, do you want me: A brilliant reworking of Miss Julie revives the play. And Electra’s still electric’. [ 11 ]. For the matrilocal marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta see Sarah B. Pomeroy (1975: 19). [ 15 ]. On the importance of inherited guilt see H. Lloyd-Jones (1962: 187–99) and H. D. F. Kitto, (1961); compare, however, N. G. L. Hammond (1965: 42–55) and Albin Lesky (1965). [ 26 ]. ‘Work Diary’ entry 20 September 1930 quoted in Berlin (1989: 28). [ 27 ]. Quoted in Berlin (1989: 28). [ 29 ]. See, for example, Peter Hall’s discussion of the emotion of the mask (2000: 28–30).