"Electra" Constrictor: How Bodies Matter in Peter Verhelst's and Luk Perceval's "Aars!"

As a counterpart to the marathon performance "Ten Ooorlog"--an adaptation of Shakespeare's "History of Kings"--the Flemish director Luk Perceval joined forces with poet Peter Verhelst to stage another drama classic: Aeschylus' "Oresteia." For Perceval, the "Oresteia" seemed appropriate to encounter his wishes for putting up a matriarchal piece after a distinctly patriarchal one. Although their collaboration commenced in 1994, it took until 2000 before its outcome, entitled "Aars!," was staged. During this period, Verhelst wrote several versions of the text, which at every turn was revised by Perceval, so that in the end a radical rewriting remained, with several references to the events of the intermediate six years, such as the numerous pedophilia affairs in Belgium and the Sarajevo War. The subtitle "An Anatomical Study of the Oresteia" qualifies the adaptation as a revision of the ancient trilogy in terms of horizontalization, foregrounding the body in its relation to textuality.