Mulgrew Earns Raves As Clytemnestra

Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway)'s new play Iphigenia 2.0, which opened in New York last week, is earning strong reviews for the production and even better ones for the actress.

• "Iphigenia 2.0 manages a very tricky feat: to completely update and reinvent Euripides' Iphighenia in Aulis while staying surprisingly true to its basic structure. This compelling work...featuring a terrific ensemble cast, gets the Signature Theatre Company's season off to a great start," noted TheaterMania. "Mulgrew approaches a melodramatic fever pitch as Clytemnestra, yet knows when to pull back and underplay her lines, as well. One of the funniest scenes is a dance she performs."

• Newsday raved about the production, calling the material "funny and harrowing, trivial and atrocious" and saying that "nothing feels gimmicky...the performances are as urgent, as dangerous and as contradictory as their material." As for Mulgrew, she "makes a devastating modern-mom of a Clytemnestra - a well-kept vamp whose sexuality is as visceral as her maternal instincts."

• "Kate Mulgrew has a plummy, upper-crust voice that streaks her pantherlike performance as Clytemnestra with a purr of sensuality," said Fox News in a review that also says the production has "a fierceness that makes every one of its 85 minutes count."

• NY Theatre calls the cast "exemplary, especially Kate Mulgrew, who is extraordinarily commanding as Clytemnestra."

• "It's...hard to muster up much sympathy for Agamemnon," wrote the New York Sun reviewer. "So the protestations of Queen Clytemnestra (a formidable Kate Mulgrew) become all the more compelling." The reviewer was not as impressed with the scripting,

• "Portraying Clytemnestra as a middle-aged socialite of no little seductiveness, Kate Mulgrew's husky growl strangles into a rasp as she comprehends her daughter's doom," added NJ.com, which called the production "a bold reinvention of a classic."

• CurtainUp stated that "Mulgrew's deep, throaty voice enhances her terrific portrayal as the sensual Clytemnestra whose scorn and hatred for Agamemmnon is made as clear as is her seductive nature."

The New York Times has a slide show about the set design of Iphigenia 2.0, which includes production photos from the play.

And Totally Kate!, which has a video clip on the news page and graciously provided all of the above links, has told us that the Signature Theatre Company has added four additional performances of Iphigenia 2.0 the first weekend in October, with information available at the theatre web site.

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