As the earliest plays, Greek tragedies are an important part of theatrical tradition, but they can seem formidable to a contemporary audience. For 36 years, the University of Utah's Classical Greek Theatre Festival, the country's oldest, has tried to make them more accessible, to demonstrate that we can relate to a king who blinds himself because he unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother - or, in the case of Euripides' "Elektra," this year's production, two wronged children who set out to avenge their father's murder by their mother and her lover.

This production has a willing ally in Euripides, who reacted against the lofty royal characters, philosophical themes and austere atmosphere of the plays of his day by creating complex, compelling characters and placing them in realistic settings. Instead of a palace, Elektra, who calls herself the "princess of tears," is married to a farmer and lives in the hills. Her exiled brother, Orestes, is a rough-edged vagabond. Klytemnestra, their mother, is more a self-righteous housewife than regal queen. And the chorus is a group of unsophisticated mountain women.

Director Hugh Hanson takes this production a step further by adding original Appalachian Mountain music by David Sharp, who also accompanies the actors on dulcimer, bodhran and flute. The chorus sings many of its lines; even Elektra sings and dances. Hanson's adaptation of the text is very colloquial, and he mines much of Euripides' trademark irony for humor.

The result is an interesting hybrid of Balkan and American influences that works most of the time. The chorus is occasionally shrill and unintelligible, and the performances sometimes veer dangerously close to burlesque. But this "Elektra" can turn in a moment and create powerful scenes like the chorus' depiction of Agamemnon's death and Pylades' description of Aegisthus' murder, eloquently enacted by Anthony Gaskins.

Hanson elicits strong performances from his mostly student cast. Nicol Razon's passionate Elektra nicely counterpoints Nicholas Zaharias' cautious Orestes and Steve Jackson's pragmatic Farmer. Jesse Harward's dual roles as the slightly dotty Old Man and the manipulative Kastor display his versatility. Barbara Smith gives Klytemnestra a self-absorbed air that reveals just how little she cares about her children. And Leticia Velez, Catherine McMillen, Gabrielle Gaston and Katherine Wroble are an empathetic and energetic chorus.

Dramaturg James Svendsen notes that "Elektra" is "unusually experimental" in combining "myth and reality, joy and sorrow, tragedy and comedy . . . and even transgresses the boundaries of tragedy." This production gets to the heart of these paradoxes.

Review

* WHAT: University of Utah Classical Greek Theatre's "Elektra"

* WHERE: The lawn northeast of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. University Ave., Salt Lake City.

* WHEN: WHEN: Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. The play will travel today to Brigham Young University for a 5 p.m. performance at the de Jong Concert Hall in the Harris Fine Arts Center on the Provo campus. Tickets are $10, $7 students, and can be purchased by calling 801-422-7664.

* RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes with no intermission

* BOTTOM LINE: "Elektra's" interesting fusion of American and Greek elements subverts preconceived notions of tragedy and throws a new light on an ancient archetypal story.