Girl on an Alter was one of the most unexpected, best shows that we have seen. The set was pretty simple with a bed laid out towards Stage Right Center. There was what seemed to be an almost Astro turf-like crumble on the floor made to look like dirt. The actors were still able to stand and walk across the “dirt”, so it was probably less tough than actual AstroTurf. Upstage there were these big wood-paneled gates that would open and reveal a “room” of mirrors and lights. There were two chairs on both Stage Right and Stage Left that were mainly used by the attendant Cilissa played by Kate Stanley Brennan.
As someone who has read The Oresteia multiple times, I was very hesitant going into this show. I am so pleased to say that I was incredibly happy with what I saw and with how the show was directed. The actress who played Clytemnestra, Eileen Walsh, made me feel so many emotions and so much sympathy for a character I previously had no regard or feelings towards. The audience was able to see how much pain she was in from the death of her child because of her husband in the most that I would call heartfelt performance.
Another performance that really stood out to me was Agamemnon’s played by David Walmsley. Even though most of the scenes he had were him getting angry or showing off by yelling, it was never too much, or felt pushed. At one point, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are having a very serious back and forth about the death of their daughter and you could see the pain that was behind his eyes. This was one of the first shows that I was able to see such true emotion from actors other than in House of Shades.
At the end of the show, Clytemnestra kills her husband by “suffocating him. While doing so, the actress pours a bottle of wine over them, and a rig goes off in the bed filling it with blood as well. I really appreciated the symbolism of the wine because it was a symbol of her daughter’s passing, and it then became a symbol of her husband’s death. Overall, Girl on an Alter was one of the most beautiful shows we’ve seen performed and from a technical aspect as well.
Theatre in London U of A 