The Flies Tickets
Exchange Theatre are celebrating their first decade of work with an anniversary revival of their first critical and public success
About The Flies
Jean-Paul Sartre’s rebellious and highly political play The Flies. This thriller re-imagines the Greek tragedy of Electra and Orestes, exploring the complexities of human values in a period of political turbulence. A company priding themselves in their international and multi-cultural heritage, Exchange Theatre’s The Flies will be performed alternately in French and English in tribute to Sartre’s roots, and the 1943 play’s origins as a political allegory. Directed by David Furlong, Exchange Theatre’s multidisciplinary and multimedia production of The Flies returns in 2019, as topical and poignant as ever. The Flies is Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist version of The Oresteia. Electra, Orestes, and their troubled family will be joined on stage by Mauritian band A Riot in Heaven, transforming this tragedy into a modern, tense and thrilling rock opera. Orestes comes back to his birth-place of Argos to find his people under the oppression of fear and guilt: They all bear the burden of King Agamemnon’s assassination. The flies are the symbol of fate constantly tormenting Argos. Orestes knows he’s free and he will defy Gods and Kings. Sartre tells in The Flies “the tragedy of liberty against that of fatality”. The flies are the symbol of the burden of fate and disinformation. Fear is what drives people, today, to become, like in Argos, ghost like, fed by medias. As Orestes is hounded by Jupiter, god of flies and death, The Flies examines freedom, oppression and courage. The Flies is a raw performance with live music, it's a Greek myth, a tale of liberty with a Sartrian bloody edge. The Flies are an image, a symbol of several ideas such as remorse, guilt, fear and fate. Exchange Theatre presents a very contemporary version: with a live rock-band, a very physical raw organic direction, and with the support of a video design. Age Recommendation: 12+