‘When we’ve killed all the animals
Men will be next’.
Oil has run out and the world fights for food. To save his people, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter to his barbaric new allies. With the fury of a mother betrayed, Clytemnestra waits for his return.
Adultery, power and revenge drive this new telling of a Greek legend.
Commissioned and produced by Sherman Cymru, Clytemnestra combines the dramatic story-telling of the former National Poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis, with the bold direction of Amy Hodge (Measure for Measure).
A pdf of the play, which is out of print, is available here.
Gwyneth Lewis explains why she reimagined Clytemnestra’s fate
‘The first play by one of Wales’s most distinguished and versatile poets… Lewis’s vivid poetic ability is much in evidence… The images in Lewis’s poetry are often threaded upon a composed and assured conversational register, and she therefore shows herself equally convincing in the more workaday dialogue of the Chorus who provide an earthy, and occasionally darkly comic, commentary on the main events… Her first, and surely not last, venture into the world of the stage’.
Poetry Review
‘A briskly told tale, richly visual, constantly engaging, and replete with rewardingly startling moments; a robustly and imaginatively physical take on text-based theatre’.
British Theatre Guide
‘A story from Aeschylus’s Oresteia is the inspiration for Gwyneth Lewis’s first stage play, one which subverts its original source material with great assurance and fluency… In spite of its title, this feels like an ensemble production with an array of pitch perfect performances. Jaye Griffiths’s Clytemnestra is stunning… Electrifying images… lend additional colour and weight to Lewis’s poetic, but spare, text. In a recent interview, Lewis said she wanted to write a sequel. It’s not a bad idea’.
Wales Arts Review
‘Ambitious, visually bold production refocuses ancient Greek tragedy’.
Reviewsgate
‘Lewis’s lovely lyrical script brings this Greek tragedy back to life in an inventive way for a new generation’.
Western Mail
The acting from the entire cast and the classy staging proves this a welcome addition to the classic Greek tragedy repertoire’.
David Cox
Clytemnestra – Press Release
Gwyneth Lewis looks forward to seeing her first play performed on stage. “It’s been a huge artistic adventure to use Greek legend to think about modern issues such as scarcity, justice and revenge. I’ve known the Greek plays for decades and working with them is like a massive shot of poetic adrenalin. They don’t date and they show the human mind stripped of inessentials – in technicolour and at its funniest and most terrifying. I’m very grateful to Sherman Cymru for allowing me to go on such a journey.”
The story is perfect for creating a production with an explosive and imaginative setting with dramatic sound and movement. Greek Designer takis, Composer and Sound Designer Simon Thorne, Lighting Designer Lee Curran and Choreographer Johan Stjernholm are the production team and creative force with the task to take audiences to Clytemnestra’s dangerous and hungry world.
Director Amy Hodge said “It’s a fantastic piece of writing and we’ve got a fabulous cast and a talented creative team. I can’t wait to be in the rehearsal room to build a theatrically dynamic, visually beautiful, and emotionally true production. Gwyneth has created a fierce, taut, gripping world where anything is possible. It’s great to see such ambitious new plays on the main stage at Sherman Cymru”
The excellent cast includes actors from stage and television including Jaye Griffiths starring as Clytemnestra (Silent Witness, Doctors, The Bill), Nick Moss (Birdsong) Rhian Blythe (winner of The Stage Best actress award for her performance in Sherman Cymru’s award winning production Deep Cut), Matthew Bulgo, (Dirty Protest Theatre) Kezrena James (Crash), Nia Gwynne (Casualty, Eastenders), Adam Redmore (The Bill), Jonah Russell (Stop The World) and Eiry Thomas (Belonging, Stella).