RED CARPET by Giulia Trivero
First performance in Lebanon
Gulbenkian Theatre, LAU – Beirut
October 14, 8:00 PM
Directed by Michelle Zalloua
In Red Carpet, Giulia Trivero reimagines the myth of the Atrides through a contemporary lens, shifting the tragedy from the palace of Mycenae to a stifling bourgeois interior.
Electra, Chrysothemis and Orestes are no longer ancient heroes but heirs to a decaying industrial empire, crushed beneath the weight of lineage and the cult of power. Blood, guilt and vengeance are no longer mythical forces but metaphors for moral and familial decline.
The media, the tabloids, and relentless exposure become the new Erinyes, invisible persecutors demanding more blood, more spectacle.
Trivero’s writing is spare, cinematic, and fiercely poetic.
Her characters speak as if in a psychological thriller, yet classical tragedy seeps through every word, every repeated gesture, every echo of a past that refuses to fade.
In the final scene – a gunshot and a red carpet cast aside – the myth folds in upon itself: power devours its heirs, and the act of liberation becomes a fresh damnation.
A short play that transforms tragedy into reportage, and reportage into tragedy.
A meditation on inherited guilt, memory, and the spectacle of ruin.
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Michelle Zalloua is a Lebanese theatre practitioner. Based in Beirut, she explores the depths of human emotion and pushes the boundaries of storytelling. She holds two degrees from the Lebanese University, one in Clinical Psychology and another in Theatre Studies. In January 2024, she wrote and directed Akher Khartouchi, presented at Théâtre Monnot. She also works as a creative drama instructor, guiding others to connect deeply with their emotions and imagination.