We round up the reviews for Daniel Fish’s production, which stars Brie Larson making her West End debut.
Broadway World: “To its credit it jitters with punkish theatrics. Shaved headed Larson snarls like Johnny Rotten. She staggers across the constantly revolving stage, set starkly lit and stripped all the way to the back wall, as if playing a demented dreamlike gig churning up poet Anne Carson’s fragmented text, although most of her lines could just be AI generated Morrissey lyrics. Maybe it would work as a interlude at the Golden Globes but here it’s just dull.”
The Standard: “Larson tackles Anne Carson’s translation – which is very faithful and sometimes quite beautiful, but mostly an impenetrable slog – in an extraordinary way, bringing layers of bitterness, resentment and desperation to the lines. Stockard Channing plays a wonderfully villainous, unrepentant Clytemnestra, clad in thick fur – “it suits me, this grand palace life,” she purrs.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s a shame, because the translation is fantastic, one moment heart-breaking (“No rest, no retrieval, no number for a grief like this”), the next colloquially ribald (Clytemnestra is a “howling bitch”) or with the acerbic cuteness that might be found in an American teen movie (“Why not run and tell all this to mother”). It just gets lost in the mix. Larson’s performance works best when she gets to stretch her voice and, like the chorus, sing Carson’s poetic lines; at times, too, she finds the irony that exists there. But for the most part her delivery is flat, a monotone bark, alienating when it ought to be moving.”
London Theatre.co.uk: “This is certainly a production designed to stretch its audience and it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but there is no doubting Larson’s ambition in her debut London stage role.”
WhatsOnStage: “The effect is to turn the piece into an abstract meditation rather than drama, a gloss on Elektra not the thing itself. I rather loved it, but it never quite becomes the sum of its parts.”
The Telegraph: “Larson manifests focus and commitment as the Greek heroine, but nonetheless joins the ranks of US stars making their London debuts in duds.”
The Arts Desk: “Brie Larson makes a brave West End debut that, alas, misfires.”
All That Dazzles: “I always say theatre at its best makes you feel and it would be wrong to say this production of Elektra didn’t make me feel anything. Unfortunately, all I felt was annoyance at the wasted talent on that stage and all the squandered potential.”
Time Out: “Daniel Fish and Brie Larson’s Elektra is a gratifyingly bone-ratting 75 minutes of punk rock theatre made with respect for the Ancient Greek tradition. But it’s a show in which you see what they were going for rather than really feel it.”
To book tickets visit ATG Tickets.