Theatre- Refrain – Clitemnestra or the crime – M. Yourcenar
- REFRAIN -
“CLYTEMNESTRA OR
THE CRIME“
by Marguerite Yourcenar
with Annika Strøhm
A study
What is living?
Living – that is to continually eliminate from
ourselves what is about to die;
Living – that is to be cruel and inexorble towards all that becomes
weak and old in ourselves, and not only in ourselves.
To be continually a murderer?
F. Nietzsche (The gay Science)
The text of M. Yourcenar, to be found in the book “Fires”, is based on the greek tragedy “Oresteia”. Agememnon returns from the war of Troy and at home Clytemnestra, his wife, is waiting. She kills him with the help of her lover, Aegisthus. In this monologue Clytemnestra gives the grounds for her action in a court of our days.
A STORY
A servant and a master marry. The master has to conquer the world and goes to war. The servant waits for his return. The master returns. The servant kills her master. The man returns…
HISTORY REPEATING
Marguerite Yourcenar tells us a love story that very often repeats itself.
The self-denial love of a woman towards a man; of a servant towards the great man.
We might say that every woman who believes in love adores serving her man, but she does not like to be treated like a servant..
Clytemnestra loves her husband – master, and in the name of fidelity she almost turns invisible.
When he returns from the war, both of them are nothing but shadows of themselves.
Clytemnestra kills her old master.
The crime of Clytemnestra is in favour of life. She tears away something that is already dead. Like a dry leaf on a tree.
A leaf on a tree turns dry. The tree let’s the leaf fall down and die. The tree remains. New leafs start to grow.
We live our lives repeating the same roles, patterns, habits…repeating the same story for centuries. We like to live this way. This repetition gives us a sensation of living.
Yourcenar, so it seems, tries to push us to become masters of our own lives, through death. To let the dry leafs fall and to stop inventing thousands of ways of how to keep them hanging.
The text is written in lyric prose. The many poetic images make it stinging and dense, soft and fluid. Like fire.
REFRAIN – A STUDY
The need to be a master of my life on stage pushes me to always tear away what is dying and old in me and in my work. Therefore, this work is and will always have the nature of being a study.
The text proposes a very clear situation; the personage in the courtroom speaking to the judges. By following this proposal I have chosen an open form of theatre, meaning no fourth wall between the public and myself.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Enough lights to create a concentrated circle at the centre of the stage.
Some dim lights on the audience.
No change of lights.
Maybe recorded music.
Duration: 40 minutes.
Assembly: 30 minutes. The time it takes to move the previous lights.
It might be necessary to do some changes of the stalls.
Disassembly: 10 minutes.
No technical rehearsals necessary.
CURRICULUM
Annika Strøhm started her studies at the Nordic Black theatre school in Oslo. She obtained her diploma at the Nordic Theatre Academy directed by Doctor Prof. Jurij Alschitz and with him she has played in several performances. Among others she has studied and worked with A. Milenin, G. Borgia, G. Sneltvedt, C. Moustache. In the last years she has worked as teacher and actress in the theatre company “La Compagnia delle Formiche”, situated in the south of Italy.
In 2007 she established the association ARETE’ ENSEMBLE together with Saba Salvemini.
Productions this year:
STUDIO K – “The night just before the forests” by B.M. Koltès;
REFRAIN – “Clytemnestra or the crime” by M. Yourcenar;
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN - a reading of the whole text.
This monologue is planned to be performed also in English, French and Norwegian.
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