By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Monday 20 July and runs through 19 September 2026 RUNTIME: 215 minutes (including 2 15-minute intervals)

Can a play ever be too long?

• Read on for reasons including how thanks to its fantastic cast this is 1 of the best revivals of the year so far

The Oresteia is, of course, a trilogy of Greek tragedies about the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes and the end of the curse on the House of Atreus.

Director Simon Stone memorably gave us Billie Piper in a glass box in Yerma at the Young Vic a decade ago and here the box contains a labyrinth of rooms in a modern-day house in which the Middleton family live in Kent.

We meet David Morrissey’s (BFI Q&A Tip Toe) businessman Christopher who definitely hasn’t met Putin but whose company might be in a little over its head in supplying warfare tech to the Russians.

His wife Montie, Mary-Louise Parker proving a real standout, is a little over affectionate to John McMillan’s Jerome and his sensitive yet entitled son Lorenzo played by Archie Madekwe.

Rosie Sheehy (Guess How Much I Love You?, Royal Court) is once again the standout playing Christopher and Montie’s posh daughter Alice who suffers from an inferiority complex about twin Isobel who is protesting against what she sees as her father’s war crimes.

She’s given a run for her money by her brother Augie, vividly drawn by Tom Glynn-Carney (All My Sons, Wyndham’s Theatre), who kisses Lorenzo in a bath yet is seemingly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The story is told across the space of a decade between 2016 and 2026 and the telling is non-linear meaning the division of the 3 stories isn’t quite as simple as the near 60-minute acts suggest.

Given the nature of the material, The Oresteia was always going to be violent and bleak yet Stone does manage to leaven it with unexpected humour which helps.

Sheehy in particular is hilarious in lampooning an especially selfish yet helpless daughter bogged down by her own entitlement.

We saw this 215-minute production on a Monday night and feared it might prove to be too long for us but actually thanks to its fantastic cast it’s 1 of the best revivals of the year so far.

• Main pictures by Johan Persson via Facebook courtesy Bridge Theatre Tickets
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