Children of Argos
(Full length, 3M 3F with doubling; otherwise 5M 5F. Flexible staging.)
Children of Argos is a modern, black comic retelling of the Electra story, blending the raw language of youth with pseudo-classical diction and exploring the question of what happens to children raised in an environment of violence. The first act takes us from Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia, through his return from Troy with the enslaved Cassandra, through their murders at the hands of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus, as Electra and Orestes try to help each other retain their sanity or at least survive. But resistance leads to exile for Orestes and worse for Electra. The second act begins with Orestes' apparent death and Electra's arranged engagement to a saintly magnate. A surprise guest crashes the wedding and long-simmering drives return to the surface. "Will we be strong enough to kill?" "I've tried to be strong enough not to kill. I don't know which takes more strength."
Characters:
ELECTRA
ORESTES
IPHIGENIA
CLYTAEMNESTRA
AGAMEMNON
AEGISTHUS
CASSANDRA
PYLADES
ANDREAS KORIOTIS
EVANTHIA PAPANASTASSIOU
SAMPLE SCENE (from Act One):
(CASSANDRA comes running out of the house, screaming. She looks frantically around.)
ELECTRA
What’s with you?
(CASSANDRA takes hold of ELECTRA.)
CASSANDRA
You want to know the worst?
The worst is, when you’re most prepared to die
and see your death just moments away,
when you’ve talked yourself calmly
into quiet resignation,
suddenly the thing you think you’ve killed,
which is the urge to live,
leaps up within you
takes control
makes you run
from what you know
you can’t run from
and your stupid body obeys.
So here I am, running,
when I know I can’t run,
and I who know the future face my end
not with passive dignity
but with idiot panic.
ELECTRA
Who’s going to kill you?
CASSANDRA
Does it matter?
ELECTRA
Well, run then.
CASSANDRA
I can’t!
ELECTRA
Do you want me to hide you or something?
CASSANDRA
You still don’t get it. Nobody gets it.
ELECTRA
Sorry.
(CASSANDRA just stands there, unable to move.)
Well, since you know the future, who kills whom?
CASSANDRA
What’s the point of telling you?
You wouldn’t believe me,
and there’s no way to stop it, anyhow.
ELECTRA
Who said I wanted to stop it?
CASSANDRA
If you knew what it was, you might.
ELECTRA
But if I can’t, then what’s the difference? Come on, tell me. I’ll believe you.
CASSANDRA
I don’t need to tell you because it’s about to happen... NOW:
(AGAMEMNON screams offstage.
Long silence.)
ELECTRA
Dad?
CASSANDRA
Don’t you know your father’s voice?
ELECTRA
Dad.
CASSANDRA
In his bath.
ELECTRA
Who did it?
CASSANDRA
Both. And now your mother kills me.
ELECTRA
My mom?
CASSANDRA
Yes.
ELECTRA
She had a reason to kill Dad, but you?
CASSANDRA
She will.
ELECTRA
I doubt it.
CASSANDRA
I don’t. I know.
ELECTRA
Where?
CASSANDRA
In there.
(CASSANDRA starts to go.)
ELECTRA
You don’t have to go in there.
CASSANDRA
Yes I do.
ELECTRA
Why?
CASSANDRA
Because that’s where it happens.
ELECTRA
But if you’re not there it doesn’t happen.
CASSANDRA
But I am there. I have to be. I have foreseen it.
ELECTRA
But you’re out here.
CASSANDRA
I foresaw that I would be a coward and run.
I foresaw that we would have this talk.
I foresee that I will go back in and die.
(She turns to go.)
ELECTRA
Hey, wait. Don’t leave me here. I just lost my dad, okay?
CASSANDRA
I lost more than that..
My brother Hector, dragged behind Achilles’ chariot
until his body was a bloody rag.
My father struck down in mourning for him,
my nephew tossed alive from the highest tower,
his bones crushed by the stones below,
my sister sacrificed on Achilles’ grave.
The knife plunged into her pounding heart.
When I die
all that will be left of us
will be my mother, Hecuba,
enslaved and mad with grief
and denied the peace of death.
ELECTRA
Don’t get me wrong. My father got what he deserved. Achilles, too. I’m glad that fucker’s dead.
CASSANDRA
I know he was the bait
that lured your sister to her death.
ELECTRA
Do you have to let them kill you, too?
CASSANDRA
I have no choice.
ELECTRA
You do. We can escape together. Live as sisters. Find some peace for ourselves. Make our own future. Come with me. Live.
CASSANDRA
I can’t.
ELECTRA
You mean you won’t.
CASSANDRA
I mean I can’t.
(ELECTRA sits and sulks.)
You will survive all this.
ELECTRA
I’m not sure I want to, but thanks all the same. Wish there was something I could do for you.
(Pause.)
CASSANDRA
There is. I have foreseen it.
ELECTRA
What.
CASSANDRA
You hold me.
ELECTRA
I hold you.
(She does.)
CASSANDRA
You stroke my hair.
ELECTRA
I stroke your hair.
(She does.)
CASSANDRA
And you tell me –
ELECTRA
In a few moments there will be no more future.
(CASSANDRA rises, kisses ELECTRA on the forehead and goes calmly into the house.)
For you. But for me?
(She closes her eyes and sings, faster than before.)
Close your eyes
All will disappear
Close your eyes
Fly away from here
Fly away
All is in the past
Fly away
You are safe at last
(She opens her eyes.)
You couldn’t really kill her, could you, Mom?
(Offstage, CASSANDRA screams.
Long silence.)
I guess you could.
(Doors open. CLYTAEMNESTRA and AEGISTHUS appear, standing over the bodies of AGAMEMNON and CASSANDRA.)
AEGISTHUS
Citizens of Argos!
Your king and his whore are dead!
Tremble and kneel before your new king!
ELECTRA (to herself)
And his whore.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Electra.
ELECTRA
Yes, Mom?
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Why don’t you come up here with us?
You’re part of the family, too.
ELECTRA
Mom...that’s my dad up there.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
The least you could do would be
to kneel where you are as a sign of respect
to your new king and new father
and my soon-to-be husband.
ELECTRA
What if I don’t respect him?
AEGISTHUS
You will learn to respect me.
ELECTRA
Who’s talking to you?
AEGISTHUS
Kill her!
ELECTRA
Oh, look, he likes the taste of blood and doesn’t want to stop.
AEGISTHUS
I said...
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Dear...that won’t be necessary.
I know how to handle my daughter.
ELECTRA
You can’t kill me anyhow. She told me I’d survive.
(CLYTAEMNESTRA goes to her.)
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Now, Electra.
I know how much your father meant to you.
ELECTRA
He didn’t mean anything to me.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
To speak thus of the dead!
ELECTRA
You’re the ones who butchered him. Where’s the respect in that?
CLYTAEMNESTRA
He died a warrior’s death.
ELECTRA
Oh, right. In a fucking bathtub.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Who told you that?
ELECTRA
Mom...I just know.
AEGISTHUS
The slave must have told her.
Maybe she could see the future.
What did she tell you about me?
ELECTRA
That you’ll knock up your sister, and since she’s also your mother that’ll make you brother and uncle to your own son.
(AEGISTHUS raises his sword to strike ELECTRA. CLYTAEMNESTRA stops him.)
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Dear...
ELECTRA
You’re really going to marry this creep?
CLYTAEMNESTRA
The royal wedding will be celebrated
once we have observed a decent period of mourning.
ELECTRA
Congratulations.
(She leaves.)
AEGISTHUS
We can’t have these shows of disrespect.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
I know, dear.
AEGISTHUS
What will people think of me
if they see my own queen’s daughter
disparage me thus?
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Perhaps if she got to know you better
she might come around.
AEGISTHUS
It would be easier to kill her.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
She’s all I’ve got left,
what with Orestes banished.
AEGISTHUS
If it will please you, my sweet, I’ll spare her,
at least for now, and see if we can talk
some sense into her obstinate head.
Still, I feel the need to execute somebody,
if only to consecrate our power.
CLYTAEMNESTRA
Of course, dear. You need to inspire fear.
(She kisses him and exits.)
AEGISTHUS
Citizens of Argos!
I thought I told you to kneel and tremble!
Well, do it!
(Pause.)
That’s more like it.
(He exits. The doors shut, concealing the bodies. Empty stage. Silence.
ORESTES enters.)
ORESTES
Dear Electra. How are you? Life down here in Phocis is okay. King Strophius is very kind. He has an enormous palace and a stable full of fine horses he lets me ride. His son, Prince Pylades, is my best friend. He’s teaching me to drive a chariot. It’s fun. My tutor is a boring old man, but I’m learning some neat stuff. And you were right. I’ve calmed down a lot and see things much differently now. Ask Mom and Dad if you can visit.
(ELECTRA enters on the opposite side of the stage.)
ELECTRA
Dear Orestes. Do they keep you in the dark about everything down there? In case you haven’t heard, Mom and Aegisthus killed our father just after you left.
ORESTES
So it happened.
ELECTRA
And his poor slave, too. It’s too bad. I’d sure like to know a few things about the future now.
ORESTES
Dear Electra. The news about Dad has left me numb. Although I know they had their problems, something in me hoped Mom and Dad would somehow work things out.
ELECTRA
Dear Orestes. You know how things get worked out in our family.