This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on August 18, 2025. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. Ledger subscribers can add the Toppman on the Arts newsletter on their “My Account” page.
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Review: ‘Electricidad’ runs on ferocity, but the adaptation circles without achieving dramatic resolution or focus
Three Bone Theatre’s production of “Electricidad” adapts a famous Greek drama and sets it in Los Angeles. (Photos courtesy of Three Bone Theatre)
By Lawrence Toppman
As the title of Luis Alfaro’s play suggests, “Electricidad” crackles with energy over one act lasting about 90 minutes.
But the drama, most of it delivered at fever pitch in Three Bone Theatre’s production, too often goes around in circles. Alfaro’s more carefully constructed “Medea,” which Three Bone did last year, held you to the end; “Electricidad,” which closes the current season, loses its grip after thematic repetition and unclear motivation.
Like “Medea” and “Oedipus El Rey,” which Three Bone will mount in its 2025-2026 slate, “Electricidad” adapts a famous tale from Greek drama. The three greatest Greek tragedians (Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides) all took a shot at this narrative, though with substantial differences. Alfaro used the basic common plot — a daughter, grieving her father’s murder by her mother, begs her brother to kill their mom — and spun it off in an interesting direction.
“Electricidad” runs through Aug. 31 at The Arts Factory at West End Studios, 1545 West Trade St.
He sets all of his Greek-derived trilogy in Los Angeles, in this case at a time when the oldest inhabitants remember zoot suits worn in the 1940s. The king of the barrio has been slain by his wife, the ironically dubbed Clemencia. (Her name means “mercy” in Spanish.)
Their daughter, Electricidad, has stolen the body from the cemetery and now mourns it loudly and bitterly in the family’s front yard. But mourning does not become Electricidad, at least in the eyes of other characters: They want the corpse buried and emotional peace restored.
Alfaro cleverly lays out the story through his own type of chorus, broom-wielding neighbors who comment on the action. Rumor has it Clemencia ordered a hit on Orestes, her son, whom the dead father sent to Las Vegas for training as his gang lieutenant. Ifigenia, the other daughter, has bolted to Fresno to become a nun. That leaves Electricidad alone, burning for revenge and shooting sparks of rage in all directions, even toward her pragmatic grandmother.
Melissa Lozada (left) portrays the title character, Electricidad, with unwavering ferocity.
The play differs from its source material in two positive ways. First, the dead man was no Agamemnon-like war hero; he beat his wife, enjoyed tormenting enemies in front of his kids and thrived on violence. Second, Clemencia murders him not to take a lover (as in all three Greek versions) but to assert independence after decades of suffering. She plans to assume control of the barrio and stop the family’s feud with tough guys in other neighborhoods.
Yet these strengths also create weaknesses. If we’re meant to sympathize at least partly with long-suffering Clemencia, why does she constantly cackle at, curse and coddle her disgusted children? Alfaro never makes it clear whether she ordered that hit on Orestes — she wouldn’t perceive this sensitive, manipulable boy as a threat — or why Orestes suddenly changes his behavior at the end. And why is Electricidad so deluded about her bully of a father, however well he treated her?
Glynnis O’Donoghue has directed at a reasonable speed, hampered by Alfaro’s inability to build to a climax without humorous sidetracks. But she mistakes volume for intensity, and the leads’ shouting matches permit almost no changes in mood. That’s tolerable in the uncomplicated Electricidad, whom Melissa Lozada portrays with unwavering ferocity, but Clemencia’s character becomes merely an irritating shrew.
The acting’s more uneven than we’re used to from Three Bone, though Luis Medina does strong work as the dead man’s loyal second-in-command. Eduardo Sanchez delivers a credible performance as the vacillating Orestes, until Alfaro’s ambiguous finale defeats him.
If you’re going
Three Bone Theatre’s “Electricidad” runs at The Arts Factory at West End Studios, 1545 West Trade St., through Aug. 31. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews several times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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