La Electra de Sófocles en la escena porteña: Avatares de una adaptación posmoderna

CLAUDIA N. FERNÁNDEZ

Brasilia

Congreso; XIX Congresso da SBEC / I Simpósio Luso-Brasilero de Estudos Clássicos: "O Futuro do Pasado"; 2013

Universidad de Brasilia /SBEC

Conceived as part of the cycle that Konex Cultural Center (Buenos Aires) dedicated in 2005 to celebrate the twenty five centuries of Greek Classical culture, J.M. Muscari´s Electra-shock  did not disappoint the expectations of those who commissioned him an adaptation of Sophocles´ Electra. The individual -and bizarre- poetics of the author, that Electra shock reconfirmed, must be understood within the framework of the eclectic aesthetic of Postmodernism. In it "universal" artistic conceptions as camp, kitsch, parody, pop culture and LGBT, among others, come to terms with topical genres as Argentine grotesque or ´sainete´. The composition ends up being a collage, or pastiche, which deconstructs itself as it stands as a rehearsal of its staging. The heavy doses of self-reference which the play exhibits makes tragedy, and theatre, a fundamental topic in it. It is logical to infer that the characters of myth are no longer what they used to be: Electra is no longer alone  -Pilade, her friend and confidant, accompanies her-, but she is still waiting for her brother Orestes, banished because of being gay, and who returns, by motorbike, accompanied of his tutor, a lost cocaine addict. The changes could continue being listed. However, despite all these variations, Sophocles is still present.. Electra shock, accepted by the public, transcended the occasion for which it had been thought and created, and remained on the billboard intermittently during the years 2005 and 2006