Iphigenia Interviews and Production

Interviews

Three interviews were conducted with the cast and crew of the 2013/2014 run of Iphigenia – two with actors Aliki and Ruth, and one with director Emma.

Scroll to watch selected moments from these interviews, or click the cast’s names to watch them in full.

Aliki Chapple (role of Clytemnestra)

Aliki is a founding member of The Rose Company, an all-female theatre company in the North of England. In this clip, she talks about the importance of performing Iphigenia under these conditions.
Acting in a female role, particularly one written in the Early Modern period and before, differs in many ways from acting in a male role. Aliki discusses how the company went about these challenges during rehearsals.

Consider: What does Aliki highlight as the main differences between male and female characters and performers? Can you think of examples of plays where these differences are obvious?
Aliki plays the motherly role of Clytemnestra, and in this clip she explores the character’s identity and motivations in further detail.

Consider: How can we consider Clytemnestra as a subversive character when it comes to the conventions of women in plays? Equally, how does she conform? Are these conformities just as valuable?

Ruth Gregson (role of Agamemnon)

Ruth plays Agamemnon, the proclaimed villain of the piece. Through her time in this role, though, she was able to form a more complex and sympathetic understanding of his motivations.

Consider: Do you think Agamemnon is a through-and-through villain, or can you also empathise with him? Are his actions in the play justified?
Like Aliki, Ruth also considers the role of gender and identity in portraying a male character. To her, characterisation is less about specific gender and more about the traits which define them. The use of costuming proved to be a valuable tool in this craft.

Consider: How do the actors of the Rose Company ‘become’ masculine characters? What traits and actions do they adopt, and how do they differ from typically feminine approaches?

Consider: Do you think gender can be separated from a character’s identity? Are there any exceptions to this?
The Rose Company prioritises the performance of classical texts over modern ones, breathing new life into plays that may have been forgotten. In this clip, Ruth discusses the importance of keeping these texts alive – particularly when they can be understood as vital achievements in women’s history.

Emma Rucastle (director)

Emma worked with The Rose Company to adapt Iphigenia for the modern-day stage. She talks about reading the play as a performance piece, and then how she went about bringing the early-modern text into the modern world.

Consider: Do you think it is important to adapt plays for modern audiences, or should they be preserved as they were originally written? Why?
In this clip, Emma illustrates the meaning behind some of the production’s costume choices. She particularly emphasises the military uniforms of the men, and the use of colours to characterise the family.

Consider: What other costume choices feel noteworthy in the production? Why do you think they were chosen? What do they say about the characters?

Consider: Do you think costume is important to crafting narratives and character identities in plays? Why/why not?
The recorded performance of Iphigenia features Emma in the role of Achilles. By getting into his mind, Emma found that she was able to craft a more nuanced and in-depth characterisation of him. Listen to her talk about this experience, and how it may influence her later directing pursuits, in the clip.

 

Articles

Click here to read Alison Findlay’s article on Reproducing Iphigenia at Aulis.

Click here to read Emma Whipday’s review of The Rose Company’s production.