We sat down for a quick chat with Sophie Max, writer and actor passionate about female-led drama. Sophocles’ Electra inspires Sharp Edges at Camden People’s Theatre this November, a contemporary story of justice, grief and familial violence.
How did you first come across Electra? Has your relationship with it developed over time?
I first came across Electra when I was a kid: I read a lot of classic plays and I’m not sure I really understood why at the time, but Electra had a massive impact on me. I was fascinated by the character who was so full of grief and rage and defiance, all these things that, already, though I was quite young, it felt like we weren’t allowed to express, especially as girls.
I then saw a production of Electra on stage at the Old Vic in 2014 and was really moved by it. When I was at drama school, I encountered other Greek tragedies; we had a term where we did Greek tragedy scene study and I played Medea. Again, I was struck by the deep understanding that these plays have for ‘misunderstood’ women, and the space they gave to women’s emotional responses to mistreatment- they were allowed to be complex and angry and vocal in a way that really excited me.
That said, the spark that became Sharp Edges happened when I read Anne Carson’s translation of Sophocles’ Electra in 2023. She’s an incredible writer, and her translation seemed to articulate these elements that I think I’d always felt were underneath the surface. I remember the first time I read it (I’ve now read it many times!), being really affected by this one line Electra says: ‘There is something bad here, / growing. Day and night / I watch it. Growing.’ There is this real sense of dread in it that felt very familiar to me as a description of experiencing abuse or violence as a child. I realised that the framework of Electra is essentially a story of this girl growing up in a violent family, surrounded by lies and secrets, and the impact of that violence on both her psyche as she grows up, her relationship to concepts like justice, grief or revenge- and the existential question of whether it’s possible to break these cycles of violence or not. That felt very resonant to me, thousands of years later, and that was what I wanted to tell a story about.
What pitfalls and benefits are there to writing a one-woman show for yourself?
Honestly, writing and performing a one woman show has been on my bucket list for a long time, so this is fulfilling that goal! When I write, character is so important to me and is very much at the heart of my work; they really become their own beings that I excavate through the process of writing them, so I don’t write with any specific actor in mind, myself included. But when I was writing this show, it became quite a personal process, and I completely fell in love with the character of Ellie, which made me decide that I wanted to act in the first iteration. The obvious benefit of writing for myself is that I could try stuff out at home. I’m a very rhythmic writer, and it meant I could explore the rhythm, cadence and subtext of the play out loud, knowing the first person performing it would be me. The other benefit is that I get to really push boundaries for myself as a performer- Ellie is so ‘out there’, she’s so acerbic and witty and stubborn and wildly imaginative and practical and a problem solver, yet also intensely vulnerable. Building that character both through the writing of it and then following that up as an actor embodying it has been really exciting and a really welcome challenge. I’ve loved it so far! I’d say there’s been a learning curve in wearing those two ‘hats’ at the same time: developing a play is such an intensive process over a long period of time (I’ve been working on Sharp Edges since early 2024) so I’ve had my writer ‘hat’ on for a while. Now that we’re getting closer to production, I’m focusing on purely being an actor as much as possible.
Why place Electra in a modern context and adapt it, instead of just performing it?
This is a really interesting question. I will firstly say that Sharp Edges is not an adaptation of Electra- it’s very much inspired by, but I say it’s ‘after Sophocles’ Electra’, rather than adapted from. All classic texts, especially texts in translation, have been shaped over time in our collective consciousness by the many people who have translated them over hundreds of years. Emily Wilson recently gave a really clear example of this when she talked about her new translation of The Odyssey, and noted how previous translators have chosen to use words like ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ to describe a word in the original text that is referring to young enslaved women who were forced into sex. So especially with the themes I wanted to pull from this story, it was important for me to tell it in my own words and free it from some of the echoes of many translations.
Also formally, I needed this to be a solo show. I was really interested in the phenomenon of growing up in a violent world, not understanding a lot of what’s going on around you, and the impact of constant secrets and lies on the development of a young person’s brain and humanness and personality. So I needed the audience to be fully immersed in Ellie’s perspective- to experience how, when she’s not told the truth, she interprets, questions or explains things- and then maybe the audience will be able to see the truth before she does at some moments.
Also, the more I read and thought about the story I wanted to tell, the character of Ellie that grew in my mind and imagination was this really unique person; very acerbic, darkly funny, bold, with a really specific worldview and journey through the play. She was the heart of it for me, and she was someone I was intrigued by and excited to write! Hopefully, by combining all those elements, I can forefront the dynamics and themes that I want to explore, and starkly show how things haven’t changed since Electra was written, and how this story remains so relevant.
How much did the show change once you started collaborating with the other members of the company?
The show has transformed massively! One of the first steps of developing the show was a 2 day R&D at the end of 2024, which facilitated huge changes to the script and structure. Working with my longtime collaborator, director Blair McAlpine, first on the work in progress shows at the Pleasance last year and now on this production, has allowed me to play with the text, discover a lot and cut right to the core of the script and story. I love collaborating for precisely this reason- speaking with Blair, Zac (our producer), and our brilliant design team, I love seeing how different people interpret the script and what they each bring to it- it pulls out so many different colours. One of my favourite things is seeing how a company combines each of their own perspectives to build the show- it always reveals new aspects of the work to me.
What similarities and differences do you see in Sharp Edges compared to your other work?
Sharp Edges bears many of the stylistic markers of my work; I always write very rhythmically, the whole play has its own rhythmic identity and musicality which is a vital part of my writing process and the identity of each play. It’s got its thematic similarities; I find myself often writing about coming-of-age (in many unique ways and at many different ages), and reckoning with knotty relationships with our own identities, histories and heritages, as well as giving voice to characters/people who are often not afforded one. Formally, though, this play is very different from my other work; I haven’t written in a solo show form before, and the inspiration gives it a very different shape and tone. Ellie’s voice is very unique too, and finding the right structure for her to tell her story, the relationship with the audience, the propulsion and the way information is revealed was a real experiment and something new for me.