Mourning Becomes Electra
- American Literature - processes affect outward actions. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1928....
- Theatre - Serious drama also advanced in the works of Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) in his trilogy...
Submitted by destiny158 on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: American History
- Words: 1003
- Pages: 5
- Views: 24
- Popularity Rank: 3573
Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra was written by Eugene O'Neill. It is now being performed at Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, and being directed by Gordon Edelstein. Mourning Becomes Electra was his final production as the Artistic Director at the ACT Theatre in Seattle. He is now taking over as the Artistic Director of Long Wharf. Its genre is tragedy/psychological Drama. It was written largely in France from 1926-1931, and was eventually published in 1931 by Random House Inc. It is a story of huge events in a small, airless place, and of terrible breeches of the moral order, taking place within small people.
Eugene O'Neill is one of the most important American playwrights in history. O'Neill takes themes that had laid dormant in the Greek plays to the front of his. He has created an epic of pain and betrayal. Only one film has been made based on the play, and RKO Pictures produced that in 1947. But post-World War II audiences did not want to see it. In 1979, a new version of the play was produced as a TV miniseries. This miniseries was full of bad acting, and breaking up the story into several episodes meant the scope of the piece disappeared. "Its release on DVD has brought back the scope, but the acting cannot be saved." (NY Times)
As the title acknowledges, Mourning Becomes Electra , follows the scheme of the Orestes-Electra legend which Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes translated into drama in the days of Greek classicism. Like the doomed house of Atreus, this New England family of Civil War time is dripping with foul and unnatural murder. It is a family that simmers with hatred, suspicion, jealousy, greed, and this is twisted by unnatural love.
As a work, Mourning Becomes Electra is an astounding mix of Greek myth, psychology, and classic theater styles. Using general knowledge of the Orestian myth to craft the basic structure of the play, O'Neill writes his characters with certain psychological motifs in mind. Both Mannon...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!
