Electra in a One-Piece

The trick of updating an ancient text with contemporary media and the Internet might feel overused these days, but Isaac Oliver's play "Electra in a One-Piece" is nonetheless brainy and bracingly funny. Staged tidily by director David Ruttura, Oliver's satiric remix of the Greek familial revenge tale feels at home in the modern, fame-obsessed milieu.

When plucky teen heroine Elle makes a YouTube video of her mother murdering her adulterous husband and disposing of the body, she is shocked by how quickly it goes viral. Elle, played with petulant snap by Amanda Scot Ellis, had hoped the video would reach her soldier brother stationed in Iraq, but she now finds herself an Internet phenomenon. Not to be outdone, Elle's overassertive mother, Clyt, played with irresistible vapidity by Erika Rolfsrud, makes her own video in response. Elle's brother, Ore, does eventually make his way home to take revenge, but not before an opportunistic reality-television producer offers the family a chance to take their dysfunction to a broader audience.

Making time for a subplot about gays in the military and even a spirited book-club scene involving Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," "Electra" is so caught up in the spirit of the times that it's a wonder it doesn't collapse under the weight of its own wry topicality. An occasional diversion into elevated classical language helps keep things rooted, but Oliver shows real aptitude for crafty humor, which is never more apparent than in two twists on the traditional Greek chorus: Elle's chatty bedroom posters of Jude Law, Justin Timberlake, and Zac Efron are consistently hilarious, and the use of Dustin O'Neill's crisp projections to represent the cacophony of comments posted on Elle's YouTube videos is inspired.

Austin Mitchell and Chris Bannow also give stout performances, the former as Clyt's insufferable "Jersey Shore"–brand pool boy, Thus, and the latter as the out-of-the-closet Ore, who turns out to be too soulful for the whole matricide thing.


Presented by Good Company at the Wild Project 195 East 3rd Street, NYC. Nov. 1–14. Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 352-3101, (866) 811-4111, www.theatermania.com, or www.thewildproject.com.