←Recommendations of Clyt; or, The Bathtub Play

I have chills. AHHH!
As someone who's always rooted for Clytemnestra, this piece is something I needed to read. Elisabeth Giffin Speckman puts The Oresteia into modern perspective and finally lets the women have a say. And in the end, it's femininity that gives our queen the final word.
I am in love with the experimental structure and the artistic ambiguity that provides so much space for actors, directors, and designers to play.
What a powerful piece. If I ever got the chance to see or work on this play, it would be an honor.
Love it!

2022-23 Salon Reading Series Selection.
Good myth-flipping, that is well constructed and effective, allows an audience to see a different perspective on the story while maintaining a connection to the core myth. Cloaked in a darkly comic structure, Clyt leads her audience through her story with the quiet indifference of a woman who knows her choices and her rationale. Speckman’s Clytemnestra is a minor character whose motives, injustices and injuries are thrust center stage as we watch her struggle with her building rage. It is the best kind of flipping and is a marvel to watch.

CLYT, an astonishing retelling of Agamemnon from the perspective of Clytemnestra, is an exploration of feminine rage that grows, secretly, inside women who are often ignored and forgotten. This Clytemnestra is a woman overshadowed by her sister, subsumed by duty and motherhood, seeking solace (and perhaps rebirth) in her bathtub, who is pushed over the edge by a casually vicious betrayal. Speckman’s visceral imagery and poetically brutal prose make her play an electric read.

CLYT is beautifully crafted, uniquely theatrical, and powerfully told. Like Clyt herself, it demands to be heard.

I loved knowing the story by heart and still finding surprises on every page! From the very first line, I was taken by the language - it is so playful and vital! The anachronisms are all carefully considered and help make the story accessible. The gorgeous stage directions are rich and can be interpreted in so many unique and visually stunning ways. The reader is constantly steeped in visual metaphor, and the doubling of Iphigenia and Cassandra is particularly brilliant. This is certainly a compelling new women-centered Oresteia for the 21st century!

Oh my goodness. This is certainly a play of high achievement. When I read the final lines, my mouth opened and I made several "Ah!" noises of joy. In college, I was in two feminist Greek plays. I did puppetry and music for them. We danced in the ensemble. We formed pictures. Reading this, I couldn't help but hear the music we might have done. Oh, how it excited me. How I would love to see this. How I would love to be a puppeteering musician in the chorus. This is splendid. Elisabeth Giffin Speckman has crafted something amazing.

A powerful retelling and reimagining of ancient myth which is rendered even more solidly universal and relatable through the lens of a grieving mother, envious sister, vengeful wife... Wave after wave, Speckman captures the rawness of what it means to be human with an 'itch' to scratch. Brilliant.

This play is gorgeous. Such a beautiful study on motherhood and sibling rivalry and marriage and loss, all through the lens of a well-known Ancient Greek story, updated with modern elements, like phones and malls. I want so desperately to see this staged.

The story of Clytemnestra is eternal but the original mythology of her is woefully out of date. Elisabeth Giffin Speckman gives her a much-needed update in this brilliant and compelling play. The staging blends modern techniques with Ancient Greek drama and I would love to see it staged. I loved the portrayal of Clytemnestra as a weary, put-upon wife and mother who just wants some alone time and Helen as an attention-seeking needy sister. This play needs to be produced.

This reimagining of the mythological character Clytemnestra’s story in contemporary idioms is a wildly theatrical tour de force – for the playwright, and for any directors, design teams, and performers lucky enough to be involved in a production of it. On the page it stuns with its creativity; on the stage I can only imagine exciting it will be. Oh, how I’d love to be in the audience for this when it inevitably gets produced!

This is just flat-out awesome. Elisabeth Giffin Speckman’s take on the House of Atreus gives us a Clytemnestra who’s relatable, modern, and human without sacrificing any of her towering capital-letter Tragic Grandeur. It’s a play in which the gods, Achilles, and mall ear-piercing kiosks co-exist; with language that alternates between spare elegance, zippy repartee, and delicious monologues of wry insight; and with choral movement that invites and demands bold theatrical imagination. Plus it’s hilarious. And enraging. An absolute hoot and an absolute tragedy, this play is alchemy of the first order.