Constellation's Ambitious 'Oresteia': Tragically Overwrought

No one can accuse the year-old Constellation Theatre Company of thinking small. Since its debut last June, this troupe -- working with seemingly limited resources -- has mounted smart, feisty, accessible productions of several modern masterpieces, such as August Strindberg's "A Dream Play." Unfortunately, in its condensation of "The Oresteia," the company's maximalism-on-a-shoestring approach fares less well. Much of this production has the hokey theatricality and papier-mache look of a college effort. Moreover, for want of focus or interpretation from director and adaptor Allison Arkell Stockman, Aeschylus's text -- the only extant example of an ancient Greek tragic trilogy -- comes across as a melodramatic historical artifact rather than as a still-vital work.

A lack of scholarship is not the problem. Stockman, Constellation's artistic director, received permission to abridge the "Oresteia" of acclaimed translator Robert Fagles. Clocking in at three hours (counting intermission), her script has flow and narrative coherence, distilling the essentials from Aeschylus's tale of avalanching violence curbed by higher law.

Stockman devotes her saga's first half, more or less, to the trilogy's first play, "Agamemnon," in which Queen Clytemnestra of Argos -- not surprisingly peeved at husband Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia -- kills him when he returns from the Trojan War. The trilogy's subsequent plays "The Libation Bearers" and "The Eumenides" -- telescoped into Act 2 of this show -- tell how Clytemnestra's son, Orestes, rubs out Mom for murdering Dad, an act that irks the avenging goddesses known as the Furies.

Set on and around a flimsy looking arc of amphitheater (A.J. Guban is scenic and lighting designer), Constellation's 29-actor "Oresteia" kicks off with a penny-dreadful image: A scrim at the rear of the amphitheater glows orange, chronicling Iphigenia's murder as a shadow play, with grappling bodies and a long knife. The rest of Act 1 maintains the cartoonish and histrionic tone. Dressed in Yvette M. Ryan's swashbuckling costumes, actors such as Nanna Ingvarsson, playing Clytemnestra , and Jennifer Crooks, as the prophetess Cassandra, pack overwrought emotion into their speeches. (As Agamemnon, Brian Hemmingsen is more persuasive, embodying his character rather than telegraphing it.)

Stockman has opted to have her choruses speak in unison -- which might be okay, except that they are sometimes out of sync, while their strenuous efforts to stay in sync give their recitations the pace of molasses. The chorus members' elaborate movements -- striking the ground or clenching their hands en masse, for instance -- look affected. (The production's choreographer is Ashley Ivey, who also plays the Watchman.)

The over-the-top sensibility that shipwrecks Act 1 subsides a little -- but not enough -- in Act 2. Guban's Crayola-tinted lighting scheme becomes whiter. Jjana Valentiner's Electra is unmemorable, but Joe Brack successfully adopts a relatively understated manner for Orestes, infusing the character with witty cynicism. Misty Demory's Athena and Nick DePinto's Apollo lend dignity to their scenes. Creeping, grimacing and twitching in their green-and-black rags and peacock feathers, the sooty-faced Furies are mysterious, if a tad cheesy.

Frequent Constellation collaborator Tom Teasley once again supplies an atmospheric original score -- an eerie symphony of exotic percussion, which he performs himself from an onstage platform. Alas, in this production, his soundscape sometimes drowns out the actors' lines.

In addition to the aesthetic glitches and miscalculations, this exasperating piece of stagecraft constitutes a failure of opportunity. Many modern adaptors and playwrights have mined "The Oresteia" for its resonant themes: gender conflict, the consequences of warfare, family and societal dysfunction, the clash between civilization and barbarism. In this production -- no doubt only a temporary setback for Constellation -- those motifs dim amid the bargain-basement spectacle and Grand Guignol.

The Oresteia by Aeschylus, translated by Robert Fagles, adapted and directed by Allison Arkell Stockman; fight choreography, Cliff Williams III; props design, Erica Yeager. With Ron Ward, Lisa Lias and others. About three hours. Through June 1 at the Clark Street Playhouse, 601 S. Clark Street, Arlington. For tickets, call 800-494-8497 or visit http://www.boxofficetickets.com/constellationtheatre. For information, call 202-280-8101 or visit http://www.constellationtheatre.org.