Agamemnon

City Garage has mounted the first of a projected trilogy of Greek classic plays as adapted and modernized by Charles L. Mee (and directed by Frederique Michel). Coming up later this year are The Bacchae and Iphegenia.

AGAMEMNON has been given a scintillating production by Michel, who investigates Aeschylus's tragedy with gusto and guts. Troy Dunn is the eponymous general who returns to Mycenae from a bloody and brutal 10-year war of revenge, convinced that his cause was just, his victory grand. Ilana Turner plays Cassandra, his war booty; Marie Francoise Theodore is Clytemnestra, the wife he left behind who is seething over the way he sacrificed their daughter for the sake of power and glory.

Aeshylus's powerful anti-war polemic is brought to vivid, bloody life by Michel, who also utilizes Charles A. Duncombe's surrealistic set and Arvo Part's impassioned chorale music to good effect.

City Garage, 1340 1/2 3th St (alley), Santa Monica. 310-319-9939.