INSIDE ‘THE HOUSE OF ATREUS’
Fourteen actors — Israeli, Ethiopian-Israeli and Palestinian — perform in the American premiere of “Mythos” by Israel’s 14-year-old Itim Theatre Ensemble. Adapted and directed by Rina Yerushalmi, “Mythos” is a three-hour retelling of Aeschylus’s Greek myth “The House of Atreus” — part of the “Oresteia” trilogy — that explores a royal family’s acts of vengeance and retribution. The play focuses on Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia to the gods, and his subsequent murder by Clytemnestra. “Mythos” is one of nearly 100 performances in the “Lincoln Center Festival 2003,” which includes 20 premieres and debuts of artists and ensembles. Represented are opera, chamber and world music; theater, dance, performance art and ritual from Korea, China, Israel, Russia, Italy, England, Germany, Brazil and the United States.
“New York is not the same as it was two years ago,” Yerushalmi told the Forward through a publicist. “A play about the price of revenge will resonate here in many ways.” With a score by Avi Belleli, the play is performed in Hebrew with simultaneous translation in English.
LaGuardia High School Drama Theater, 100 Amsterdam Ave.; July 8-July 12, 8 p.m., July 13, 3 p.m.; $55. (212-721-6500 or www.lincolncenter.org)
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