Greek tragedy alongside Oscar-winner Brie Larson in Brighton

Marième Diouf is revelling in her first professional plunge into the world of Greek tragedy in a new production of Sophokles’s Elektra.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, really lovely to speak to Marianne Duve, who is heading to Brighton

00:06Theatre Royal early in 2025 for something that's going to be truly exciting, Sophocles Electra.

00:12Now you're playing, no, you were helping with the pronunciation, Chrysophemus.

00:17Where does she fit in then? Hello Phil. Well, Chrysophemus is Electra's sister

00:24and she is someone that's definitely in the same society as Electra is, in the same world,

00:33in the same pain, I suppose. But she has different ways of dealing with that,

00:40that are different to Electra, where Electra is very much, you know, set on revenge and set on

00:46bringing her father's killer to whatever. Chrysophemus is more a logical person where

00:54she goes, you know, I'm in a world where actually doing that is dangerous in itself, like there's,

01:01if we do that, there's a world where we won't even exist anymore, like our life won't exist

01:05anymore. So she's more acceptance of things? She's more acceptance, she's accepting but also

01:12aware, I would say that if you gave her a plan that made sense, that wasn't, you know, so risky

01:21to her own life because of who she is and where she's at, then there's a world where she's brave

01:28enough to go, okay, we can do this. I don't think she's necessarily just sitting back and taking it

01:33all, you know, like, I think she resists in a different way. I think she fights in a different

01:39way and that starts with her being able to know who she is and being able to stay strong within

01:47her own skin and her own place, you know. That sounds fantastic. And the really exciting thing

01:51for you, or one of the many exciting things for you, is this is your first professional plunge

01:56into Greek tragedy. Yeah, professionally. What's it like to be in that world? Is it very different

02:01to any other plays that you've done? There must be. I would say, to be fair, I've done a lot of

02:07Shakespeare, so it does give the same world, the same sort of large world of, you know, ancient

02:15plays. So it doesn't feel necessarily out of reach. I just think in this particular play,

02:24it's written so well, like just reading it, it just feels like you can literally live in

02:30the world because the words are so, so important, so specific. So yeah, I'm just, I'm really excited.

02:38Well, it sounds a fantastic start to 2025 as far as Brighton is concerned, and you're

02:43back to London. Really lovely to speak to you. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you, Phil.