THAT’S A WEEPY ONE

Electra Onion Eater is a modern adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra. Murder begets murder in a classic Greek tragedy twisted into a Buntportian comedy. Electra waits patiently for her brother Orestes to return home in order to enact revenge on their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus for killing their father Agamemnon (who had killed their sister Iphigenia — just the usual family dynamic). With nothing but time on her hands, she watches soap operas and makes onion pies as offerings to the gods.

Greek tragedies and soap operas are both full of endless fueds and on-going plots of revenge. Implausible things are accepted without question, and often people are endlessly miserable. Electra in the original play is constantly weepy, and in Electra Onion Eater she has been given a tangible as well as emotional reason to cry. Thus the onion pies.

With Erin Rollman as Electra, Hannah Duggan as mother Cyltemnestra, Erik Edborg as brother Orestes, Brian Colonna as step-father Aegisthus in the family portrait (shown), and featuring guest performer Andrew Horwitz as neighbor Bruce.

• Denver Post- Buntport’s “Electra” chops up onions and Greek tragedy
• Our Parker News- Buntport tackles Greek tragedy in oddball style
• Westword- There’s no deep meaning under the layers of Electra Onion Eater
• Marlowe’s Musings- Electra Onion Eater
• North Denver Tribune- Buntport Blends Greek Classic, Soap Operas, and Onions in Electra Onion Eater