For a mere £25 you too can be the victim of a motiveless, 75-minute audio-visual ᴀssault on a hapless West End audience.

Led by Oscar-winning Hollywood starlet Brie Larson (she of the 2015 film Room and Apple TV+’s Lessons In Chemistry), it’s a snarling, punk travesty of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Electra (yes, they’ve given it a radical ‘k’), by Canadian poet Anne Carson.

It relays Elektra’s furious grief for her father Agamemnon, who has been murdered by her mother, Clytemnestra.

From Larson’s opening screech, the play is a shrill, single note of frozen rage.

Using microphones to yell at, spit on and distort her voice, Larson’s shaven-headed Elektra – wearing torn jeans and a T-shirt reading ‘ʙικιɴι KILL’ – vents her fury at anyone who crosses her path.

A chorus of women in gold dresses echo her anger in an atonal caterwaul of their own; while Stockard Channing, as her murderous mum, tries to reason with her.

To no avail. Elektra’s favourite word is ‘No!’ – screamed at high pitch, repeatedly, at length.

For a mere £25 you too can be the victim of a motiveless, 75-minute audio-visual ᴀssault on a hapless West End audience

Eventually, her presumed-ᴅᴇᴀᴅ brother Orestes shows up and is charged by Elektra with bumping off their mother and hated stepfather Aegisthus (the estimable Greg Hicks, who has somehow allowed himself to be cast for a five-minute turn at the end).

Carson’s script has the literary merit of a head ʙuтт, and it’s mirrored by Daniel Fish’s remorselessly melodramatic production – which, inexplicably, features a zeppelin hovering overhead.

Follow Elektra’s example and just say No. 

Over at London’s Old Vic, the ancient King of Thebes – famed for slaying his father and marrying his mother – is being played by another Hollywood star, Rami Malek, who also won an Oscar (for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody).

Sadly, alongside Indira Varma as his unsuspecting mum, Malek isn’t the best thing about Matthew Warchus’s apocalyptic staging. That accolade belongs to a gyrating chorus of dancers representing the desperate people of Thebes, who lay on a giddying display of flashing feet and flailing limbs, set to pounding drums.

Led by Oscar-winning Hollywood starlet Brie Larson (she of the 2015 film Room and Apple TV+’s Lessons In Chemistry), it’s a snarling, punk travesty of Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Electra (yes, they’ve given it a radical ‘k’), by Canadian poet Anne Carson

Making his UK stage debut, Malek’s mask-like features are a good fit for a great king from antiquity, but his inward-looking method acting doesn’t suit the ritualistic staging that’s meant to evoke ancient Greek religious cults.

Even so, Warchus’s direction and Rae Smith’s design is easy on the eye, and though it lacks the intellectual grit and psychological terror of the original play, the dancing gives it a primal swagger.

Elektra runs until April 12, Oedipus runs until March 29

A version of that review appeared in earlier editions.

The Double Act (Arcola Theatre, London)

By Veronica Lee 

Verdict: Salty satire

We’re in a grimy house in Saltmouth, a rundown seaside town, where Cliff Biddle’s carer, Gulliver, has arranged for comedian Billy Bash to visit Cliff before his show at the local theatre.

In the 1980s, Biddle & Bash were a successful double act with a television show — before Cliff’s predilection for indecent exposure in car parks meant they went their separate ways… Cliff to jail and Billy to become ‘Britain’s third most offensive comic’.

We’re in a grimy house in Saltmouth, a rundown seaside town, where Cliff Biddle’s carer, Gulliver, has arranged for comedian Billy Bash to visit Cliff before his show at the local theatre

This is the promising set-up for Mark Jagasia’s new play – and for most of its two hours it entertains, as the three men’s back stories are revealed

This is the promising set-up for Mark Jagasia’s new play – and for most of its two hours it entertains, as the three men’s back stories are revealed.

Billy (Nigel Betts) learns that Gulliver (Edward Hogg) has been helping Cliff (Nigel Cooke) write his memoirs.

But the mentally fragile Cliff doesn’t know that Gulliver has an ulterior motive — and Billy fears that all the dirt Cliff has on him will wreck what’s left of his career.

As Cliff wheedles and Gulliver plots, Billy realises that for once he can’t bully his way out of this particular тιԍнт spot.

Mr Jagasia (a former showbusiness journalist) draws parallels between the world of comedy and the state of the nation — Billy is known for his anti-Brexit jokes — and in Oscar Pearce’s production there are elements of absurdist satire, farce and revenge tragedy.

With so much going on tonally, the play rather loses its way, but the script is full of deliciously rude zingers and the performances are terrific.

Until February 22 (arcolatheatre.com)