Review: Electra / Persona, National Theatre ★★★

Electra has been making herself at home in London theatres recently. She appeared, renamed as Alice, in the modern version of The Oresteia at the Bridge Theatre this year and was also in a 2025 version played by Brie Larson.

In this version at the National Theatre, the classic Greek play, Electra, is coupled with Persona, a 1966 film by Ingmar Bergman, to make a pairing, Electra / Persona, performed by the same cast with just a short pause in between. There is some rationale for this pairing; Elisabeth Vogler in the Bergman film is playing Electra on stage when she freezes and ends up in a clinic.

Arriving on a huge wooden staircase reminiscent of both a Scandinavian pine-built sauna and a Greek amphitheatre, Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss toss a coin to settle their two roles. Each is in black rehearsal clothes and slicked-back hair, ready for either part.

Electra is well performed and all the necessary Greek drama is here, despite the small cast. At the performance I saw, Hoss became Electra and, as her identity dissolves into that of her brother, her anguish is howlingly clear. Blanchett as her mother begs her to just say one thing, a refrain repeated in the Persona portion of the show. Blanchett gives a touching performance of a mourning mother, her despair at the loss of Iphigenia blinding her to the living children in front of her.

Magda Willi’s staircase set requires the cast to cover a huge amount of vertical distance and is very striking. It is unfortunately also quite difficult to look at for someone with eye difficulties such as a squint, with the high-contrast horizontal stripes, shadowed in different ways by Jon Clark’s lighting, creating a sort of optical illusion that requires consistent mental effort to untangle. It forms the opportunity for some very striking tableaux, such as a long vertical line formed of the clothes of dead family members cutting across the horizontal stairs as Aegisthus (a fleetingly seen Patrick Robinson) is killed.

As Electra ends and Persona begins there is a short pause. We watch the stagehands clear and clean the stage and the cast reapply make-up. For me, this was only semi-successful. If the link between the two is that the actress of Electra has failed to perform, then why is she on stage steadily preparing for her next show? And does this mean we are to assume that the others around her in Persona are actors, too? Witnessing blood carefully placed on the stage also caused me some distraction as I could not help watching out for its later use by the cast.

Persona uses video technology, often in extreme close-up, to show us into Elisabeth Vogler’s world. As she is treated, Hoss, as Elisabeth, is hidden away under the same fur coat that Clytemnestra wore. We see her face react to what nurse Alma (Blanchett) says or does in full-screen detail. Video has been used frequently in recent London theatre, famously in Evita at the Palladium with its outdoor balcony scene. It largely feels fresh here in the initial scenes, and watching a singular tear roll down Hoss’s face is very poignant. It does begin to feel over-used at times, such as when they run around the backstage area, but is again powerful as the two meld into each other.

Hildur Guðnadóttir has composed music for both pieces. Her music underpins the emotional tension in such a way that it does not stand out for its own sake. It serves as structure rather than star, with drama present when needed.

Overall, Electra / Persona is a showcase of the talent of its two stars but does not sufficiently justify the union of the two pieces.

Image credit: Monika Rittershaus

Electra/Persona plays at the Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, until 10 October.

Venue: Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX
Dates: 19 August to 10 October 2026
Running time: 2 hours , with a short pause between the two plays and no interval