Mourning Becomes Electra

Mourning Becomes Electra [1] (1931) is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is divided into three plays with themes that correspond to The Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus and the three plays by O'Neil are titled Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted.

The original text

The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932.

Published in Nine plays by Eugene O'Neill, selected by the author. Random House, c1932.

Performance history in South Africa

1942: René Ahrenson directed a Spotlight production in the Hofmeyr Theatre, featuring Zoë Randall as Lavinia Mannon. Décor John Wright.

1967: Staged by PACT in a production directed by the German director Walter Czaschke , featuring Arthur Hall (Ezra Mannon), Molly Seftel (Christine), Maureen McAllister (Lavinia), Kerry Jordan (Capt. Adam Brant), John Mitchell (Capt. Peter Niles), Madeleine le Roux (Hazel Niles), Siegfried Mynhardt (Seth Beckwith) and Francois Swart (Orin). Decor by Raimond Schoop and costumes by Aubrey Couling.

1985: Presented by the Technikon Pretoria Department of Drama at the Breytenbach Theatre 20-24 August, directed and adapted by René Tredoux.

Sources

Wikipedia [2].

Trek 7(9):17, 1942.

PACT theatre programme, 1967.

PACT list, 1972.

Petru & Carel Trichardt theatre programme collection.

Return to

Return to M in Plays II Foreign Plays

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page