Originally scheduled for October, Center Theatre Group’s Digital Stage is launching readings of the three plays that make up The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro. Those plays are Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey and Mojada.
All three plays are inspired by Greek tragedies. Each play is updated and takes place in contemporary East Los Angeles. The first play Center Theatre Group is streaming is Oedipus El Rey which begins this week on Friday, November 13th. Mojada will go online on November 20th and Electricidad goes online November 23rd. All three titles will remain available for streaming through January 20th.
Press materials state that these will be “a series of new multicamera, virtually produced readings and productions recorded at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.”
Oedipus El Rey had its premiere in 2010 at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre. As the title implies, this play is based on Sophocle’s Oedipus.
Set in both a Los Angeles barrio and the California Prison System, the central idea remains the same, a son in love with his mother. Alfaro also uses the traditional Greek chorus, but here they are prisoners and residents in the barrio.
At press time we did not have cast or director information. We will update this post when we receive it.
Robert Hurwitt, in his SF Gate review, said of the play, “Alfaro may be the first, Sophocles included, to place the love of Oedipus and Jocasta squarely at the play’s tragic center…Where Alfaro’s Oedipus succeeds unequivocally is in the strange, sweet but frightening innocence of its title character as a man raised within the correctional system…It’s the tragedy not of an individual but of a society, and one we can’t help but recognize as our own.”
Mojada also had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre. Under the title Bruja, it opened there in 2012. Euripides’ Medea serves as the inspiration for Mojada. With its new name, the play was performed at the Getty Village in Los Angeles in 2015.
In Medea, the title character is considered a threat to herself and her children after her husband, Jason, leaves her for another woman. King Creon banishes her but she begs for one additional day – which is all she’ll need to exact her revenge.
Based on the difference in reviews between Bruja and Mojada as performed at the Getty Villa, it seems some significant changes had been made between the two productions. In Mojada the title character is an illegal immigrant who makes money by sewing in Boyle Heights.
We also did not have cast or director details for Mojada at press time. We will update that information when we get it.
Charles McNulty, writing in the Los Angeles Times said of the play, “This richly detailed story lures in a new audience with its gritty urban setting and modern Angeleno accents. Better still, it casts a beguiling narrative spell while finding opportunities for biting cultural commentary on a not-always-hospitable America.”
Electricidad (which found inspiration in Elektra by Sophocles) was performed at the Mark Taper Forum in 2005. In Alfaro’s version, Electricidad has to convince her brother, Orestes, to leave Las Vegas and come back to Los Angeles to avenge the murder of their father by their mother.
The cast for Electricidad will include Esperanza America, Sal Lopez, Sandra Marquez, Alma Martinez, Catalina Maynard, Marlene Montes, Sarita Ocón, Gabriela Ortega, Rose Portillo, Geoff Rivas, Lucy Rodriguez and Eddie Ruiz. The reading is directed by Laurie Woolery.
In Daryl H. Miller’s review in the Los Angeles Times of the 2005 production, he said, “Alfaro synthesizes the stories of thousands of men, women and children trapped in cycles of poverty and violence. Lack of opportunity leads to frustration, which in turn sets off a fight for what little anyone can get his or her hands on. In the process, communities cannibalize themselves.”
All three plays are performed in English with the option of Spanish captioning.
There is no charge to view these readings. Donations, of course, are encouraged.
Photo: Playwright Luis Alfaro (Photo courtesy Center Theatre Group)