elektric

Musical Theater Production - Caleb Smith, Emmie Smith

Backstory

Elektric is a musical adaptation of the classical story of Orestes and Elektra. It pulls from all three major adaptations in the Greek canon, Oresteia by Aeschylus, Electra by Euripides and Electra by Sophocles. It is set in a world both modern and ancient, with characters having access to 21st century objects/concepts like guns and cameras, boxed wine and transgenderism, while remaining in the city-state of Argos some ten years after the Trojan War. Fueled by hatred for her husband and the gods, the queen, Klytemaestra, and her lover-turned-accomplice, Aegisthus, murder the king. Agamemnon dies in his own bathtub after surviving ten years in the Trojan War. She blames the king for his own demise as before he left, Agamemnon sacrificed their oldest daughter, Iphigenia to appease the goddess Artemis and be allowed passage to Troy. This is all explained to us by a disgruntled and disagreeable Greek chorus, none of whom can determine the truest version of the story (much like our various original authors). The actual plot begins a year later; Argos has become a tense and explosive city, declining into chaos after a long war and murdered head of state. The streets are flooded with protesters and armed soldiers bouncing off one another, with the private military headed by our power-hungry royal couple.

“Wars don’t end like they used to…” - Klytemaestra

First mock-up cover designed by Emmie Smith

Synopsis

Our main characters are Elektra and Orestes, twin siblings and dual heirs to the dying city. They have been separated since they were children, Orestes having been sent away to study in the beginning years of the Trojan War. Elektra is obsessed with the murder of Agamemnon and desperate for revenge against her abusive mother. She is brutal, hysterical, brilliant and hyper-religious. Elektra believes in a divine justice code, that what is sanctioned by the gods is right and just, and what isn’t is evil and wrong. She is also transgender and this remains a continuous point of abuse for her mother to harp upon. Klytemaestra despises her daughter’s clear preference for her father and her seeming ambivalence towards his faults and mistakes. Orestes is quite different from his sister. He is more learned, calm and hesitant but also naive. He too is looking for vengeance but would prefer a peaceful transfer of power. He knows he has the proper claim to the throne but doesn’t want to kill anyone, especially not his mother. Orestes holds more of a morality-based justice code, and believes that things are good and bad inherently. The twins love each other immensely but their differing personalities and world views cause problems as they seek to revenge their father and seize control of the city-state. The play focuses on this relationship and their quest for power and absolution.

“Killing for the Gods isn't murder. It's duty.” - Elektra

The design above is the first draft that I attempted using the base design that Emmie sent me. From the backstory, I adopted a famous illustration of Agamemnon dying during the Trojan War under the "ELEKTRIC" wordmark. Keeping the wine spillage (in representing modern, but, at the same time, lasting antiquities, I have the wine transitioning into blood as it hits Agamemnon to show revenge in death.

In attempting to find a more Greek mythological sentiment to the design, I changed the wordmark of the title to a more ancient, angular look. In the left design, a sandy-like background pertains to Greece's beachy and clay terrain while the gunshots "through the cover" shows modern methods of killing, as to show these characters have access to modern objects.

In a simpler approach, I looked up a portrait of Agamemnon and made that the focal point of the cover. The black background is to simply emphasize the lettering and portrait. The right design is a digital representation of the middle cover, as to "clean-up" the hand-drawn line pattern of the orange and keep the tone of the lettering consistent. The latter design is eventually the one picked to be the cover of "Elektric".