The Electra bit of the title refers to the Sophoclean tragedy of a daughter trapped in a cycle of vengeance, the Persona part to Ingmar Bergman\u2019s 1966 film about an actor who suddenly stops speaking while performing Electra on stage.<\/p>\n
Benedict Andrews\u2019 drama after Bergman and Sophocles first welds the two together, then raises the concept higher by enlisting his star castings in Cate Blanchett<\/a> and Nina Hoss to share the parts of Electra and her murderous mother, Clytemnestra, as well as Bergman\u2019s inexplicably silent actor, Elisabeth, and her nurse, Alma, who fall into a disturbing, mirrored relationship.<\/p>\n The order of who will play whom is decided on the flip of a coin before each show every night. \u201cHeads or tails?\u201d Blanchett asks Hoss, after walking on, and gets an audience member to toss the coin. She wins, so it\u2019s Clytemnestra and Alma for her, while Hoss plays Electra and Elisabeth.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a clever twist (too clever?) that seems earnest in its intentions to eke out mother-daughter friction from each drama, as well as exploring ideas on performance, how actors assume roles and who they become when they are off-stage \u2013 rather than a production conceived as theatrical sport.<\/p>\n Yet, this intense, interval-free show is quite literally a game of two halves, Andrews\u2019 overhaul of the ancient much more successful than his strangely sterile play on Bergman\u2019s classic.<\/p>\n Blanchett and Hoss are thrown into a series of gladiatorial face-offs across the night and if Andrews\u2019 idea to join up two such distinct dramas suffers from strain, they become his secret weapon. They shine, even when the awkwardness of Persona reveals its cracks.<\/p>\n The ancient comes first, with a searing performance from Hoss (previously in a shimmering production of The Cherry Orchard<\/a>, directed by Andrews). She plays a spittingly angry adolescent, ominously brandishing a hammer, who has an edge of the comic grotesque. She hates her mother but, it is clear, loves her too.<\/p>\n