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monolith94
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New England
Jan 1970
time: 00:27
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Well, you should check out the english translations of The Trojan Women and Helen, they're great. The Trojan Women is quite amazing - it depicts the Trojan Women being divided and taken away by the Greek "heroes". They lament, and Cassandra has a great crazed speech. Andromache is cool in it to, and Hecuba is cool with her old woman schtick. It's very, very anti-war, which sort of surprised me, and still has relevancy to the modern age.
Helen, by the same author, is a comedy. In it, Menelaus and Helen have left Troy, but they've been blown of course. After years of struggle, they wind up in rags on the coast of Egypt. Menelaus leaves Helen in a cave, and goes to ask for help from the Egyptian king. However, he comes across Helen...
THE REAL HELEN! Turns out the Helen at Troy was actually a phantom Helen, not the real thing. The real Helen has been safely locked away in Egypt this whole time, not schtupping Paris. So yeah, that's the premise. It's pretty funny.
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monolith94
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New England
Jan 1970
time: 00:27
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quote:
Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Oh dear lord 
Maybe it was the performance I saw, but I couldn't take any more chest-beating, hair-pulling, grief-stricken speeches. It was an endless parade of misery. |
I have, have, have to object to this. Frankly, I don't think it's a play that ought to be performed, and I say this as an actor. I think that it leaves a much bigger impression, and works much greater as simply a read play. The greek culture of the time was so different, and their plays work so differently that applying the modern acting aesthetic just does not work.
Yes, it is an endless parade of misery, but that's the subject matter of the play. It is an indictment of Greek military adventurist culture, where heroes that rape and pillage are the good guys. But in the Illiad, the thing we read in high school, we never learn that the greeks cold-bloodedly sacrificed Polyxena at Achilles' tomb. People don't tend to think about the tragic death of Astyanax.
Check out the dvd, if it is possible for the play to work as an acted adaptation, I think it does there. It's got Katherine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave, and Genevieve Bujold! Of course, they made many cuts, which is probably why it works. Oh, and it has the great, great Brian Blessed.
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03-02-2005 06:36
I like gay canadians. 
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