Clitemnestra. La casa dels noms Agustí Villaronga / Colm Tóibín

In Clytemnestra, House of Names, author Colm Tóibín humanises this key figure in classical Greek literature, just as he did with Mary, mother of Jesus in The Testament of Mary (which we saw here at the Teatre Principal in 2015). We must remember that Clytemnestra is a mother that has lost her daughter, who was sacrificed by her own father, and who is seeking to avenge this death. Western tradition has shown us an image of Clytemnestra that represents evil: unfaithful, cruel, a murderer, hustler and bad mother. Through her, a misogynistic message is constructed that is manifested in The Oresteia by Aesychlus, then passed on to his contemporaries Euripides and Sophocles and consolidated in the 17th century with the French tragedies written by Racine. Tóibín, doing away with tradition, brings a new sensibility so that the pain transmitted to us by Clytemnestra from afar stays alive, becoming closer and more indulgent.

A production by the Teatre Principal de Palma and Testamento