STAGE REVIEW : PRODUCTION OF ‘ELECTRA’ IS BLURRED

The Greek tragedies of Sophocles don’t turn up on American stages much these days, which is both unfortunate and understandable.

Done right, his epic, mythic dramas can be powerfully satisfying probes of both the heroic and depraved in the human soul. Done wrong, these moralistic classics can belabor even the most sophisticated audience.

The Gem Theatre’s “Electra” (with a cast made up almost entirely of Rancho Santiago College students as part of the campus participation in the Grove Shakespeare Festival) is a burden for many reasons, the more obvious being the performances by many of the lead players. Chalk it up to inexperience in this young cast, but almost all the portrayals are hesitant and blurred, a crucial failing for theater that depends on clarity to be accessible and persuasive.

Only Kemi Lapite as Electra is really on the right track. She comes up with a convincing heroine, taking Electra at face value as the loyal daughter whose grief leads to vengeful murder.

What she lacks in shading she makes up in emotional power. Her Electra appears to have no manipulative ambition at all as she urges brother Orestes to kill her mother and stepfather. What motivates her is pure, obsessive love for her murdered father, King Agamemnon.

It’s almost a show-saving turn. Lapite gets reasonable support from Jane Hebson, who plays her mother, Clytemnestra, with a restraint that, at times, makes for a certain poignancy, but the help ends there.

In a role that calls for a hero’s grip, Kevin Jones as Orestes carries everything too awkwardly. After returning to Mycenae to find his sister in rags and distressed to the point of madness, Orestes’ rage should be a heightened moment that fills the audience with both relief that justice will be served and an uncomfortable apprehension of the bloodletting to come. Here, the meeting is appropriately fevered, but it goes no further. It’s apparent that Jones is trying hard (maybe too hard), but he just doesn’t convey the urgent dimension of strength and resolve.

Cole Anderson as Orestes’ teacher and friend, Paedagogus, and Ceptembre Anthony as Electra’s sister, Chrysothemis, also fail to bring to their roles a needed depth. Anderson delivers his lines with drama but little assurance. Anthony is somewhat more accomplished, but her Chrysothemis does not adequately communicate the stark ambivalence that paralyzes the character.

To the production’s credit, director Victor Pappas does try to give it an authentically Greek aura by having the chorus recite key lines and sing lyrical passages for emphasis.

Costumer Kimberly Reeder’s gold-brocaded tunics and graceful dresses, and E. Scott Shaffer’s excellent re-creation of an ancient temple facade further help to create the right mood.

“ELECTRA”

A production of the Sophocles tragedy at the Gem Theatre. Directed by Victor Pappas. With Kemi Lapite, Kevin Jones, Cole Anderson, Ceptembre Anthony, Jane Hebson and Brent Metken. Set by E. Scott Shaffer. Costumes by Kimberly Reeder. Lighting by Lawrence Oberman. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. through Sept. 6 at 12852 Main St. in Garden Grove. Tickets: $8. (714) 636-7213.