A DAUGHTER'S REVENGE, EAST L.A.-STYLE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

THAT ELECTRICIDAD! Talks a good fight, but is ultimately kind of a wimp and gets her whiny older brother to do her dirty work for her.

Yes, yes, I know. A shocking lack of reverence. May the gods of adaptation strike me down. May a chorus of henlike neighbors shake their heads and sweep dust over my blasphemous remains.

If you know anything whatsoever about the fall of the House of Atrius, you'll probably recall that Agamemnon met a bad end at the hands of his queen, Clytemnestra, prompting their two children - Electra and Orestes - to take fate into their own hands and spill more blood. Spinning off Sophocles' ``Electra,'' Luis Alfaro's ``Electricidad'' transplants the Electra-Clytemnestra-Orestes sequence onto a present-day Latino family in East L.A. In this scenario, playing at the Mark Taper Forum, the deceased ``King'' is a cholo gang lord who met his maker at the hands of his forward- thinking wife, Clemencia. And the kids aren't happy.

From a storytelling perspective, Alfaro and director Lisa Peterson hew terrifically close to Sophocles' source material - too close, in fact: Anyone with a passing familiarity with Greek drama knows what's going to happen.

More troubling is the playwright's and director's treatment of the story. When we're not wallowing in heartbroken Electricidad's revenge-fueled fury, we're getting peppered with too-on-the-nose cultural references and L.A. humor. And for a short play all about revenge and bloodshed, ``Electricidad'' is actually a little boring.

Much of the humor is supplied by a trio of neighbors (played by Denise Blasor, Catalina Maynard and Wilma Bonet) who appear to be auditioning for ``Desperate Barrio Housewives.'' They inform us - at rather too great a length - that our play's title heroine (played by Zilah Mendoza) is every bit an Electrici-daddy's girl, to the point that she has stolen her murdered father's corpse, planted it in the front yard, surrounded it with luminarias and refuses to leave its side. Mom Clemencia (Bertila Damas), who envisions a new, female-centered order, wants Electricidad (``La Trici'') - to join her in a power transfer, or at the very least, to give up the body and come back in the house. Nothing doing, says Electricidad, who vows, not so privately, to have her mother's blood.

The rest of the family is in a shambles. Electricidad's sister, Ifigenia (Elisa Bocanegra), a formerly dangerous neighborhood girl, has joined a convent. Brother Orestes (Justin Huen), presumed murdered, is actually living in exile in Las Vegas until he becomes ready to return and assume his father's place. Would that he had the stomach for a power grab.

Set designer Rachel Hauck effectively locates the action in the front yard of a blasted-out California bungalow enclosed by a short fence and flanked by a pair of authentic-looking palm trees. The dead dad's pyre - indeed, the entire production - is skillfully illuminated by lighting designer Geoff Korf.

Light-years away from the nanny she played in ``Living Out'' at the Taper, Mendoza makes for a smudged, haunted and thoroughly desperate Electricidad. It's easy to see the link between, say, Mendoza's character, Damas' hell-on-wheels Clemencia, and Bocanegra's Ifigenia (the latter is something of a profane sketch, but quite a humorous one). Alfaro seems less interested in the surviving males. Orestes exists to fill a destiny. Which, graphically, he does.

But you kind of wish he didn't. Maybe a play entirely about women and revenge - and with fewer L.A. recognition jokes - would make for a more satisfying evening.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

ELECTRICIDAD - Two and one half stars

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through May 15.

Tickets: $34 to $52. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: Ah, those Greeks ... er, Angelenos. When will they ever learn?

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Zilah Mendoza and Justin Huen star in ``Electricidad,'' an L.A.-centric adaptation of Sophocles' ``Electra,'' at the Mark Taper Forum.