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In early 1972, after many months of planning, Stuart Ash relocated back to Ontario to establish G+A, Toronto. With the onset of this move, an opportunity arose to work with the St. Lawrence Centre, through its then marketing manger, Anthony Alexander. Working from Stuarts apartment, Tiit Telmet was appointed as the studio’s first employee and together they successfully designed the first set of iconic St Lawrence Centre posters for a series of performances, all following a common graphic illustrative direction. Off the back of this success, more work followed for the centre, as well as two new designers joining the design team, Malcolm Waddell and Frank Bzdurreck. This poster was the first in a new series of five performances taking place in late 1972 / early 1973, each set on a common black background with bold Univers titles in red and photographic imagery unique to each event / story.

‘Electra’ is a Greek tragedy written by the ancient playwright Euripides. Set in the city of Argos a few years after the Trojan War, the play tells of a bitter struggle for justice by Electra and her brother Orestes for the murder of their father Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus. When King Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War, his wife Clytemnestra (who has taken Agamemnon’s cousin Aegisthus as a lover) kills him. Clytemnestra believes the murder was justified, since Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia before the war, as commanded by the gods. Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, rescued her younger brother Orestes from her mother by sending him to Strophius of Phocis. The play begins years later when Orestes has returned as a grown man with a plot for revenge, as well as to claim the throne.

This set of posters was featured in an extensive feature on G+A Montreal / Toronto in Communication Arts Magazine in the March/April Issue 1973 shortly after they were completed.

To see more the full series click here

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