Most of us like a good story: curling up on the settee with a good book; feet on the footstool as a drama or storyline on a soap- opera unfolds; a trip to the theatre to watch the latest production of a Shakespeare play, or an Agatha Christie dramatisation. Greek Tragedy is the common root of all this angst! In true pantomime style many of us are gripped to our chairs and seats, or behind the settee, as the baddie is behind the heroine or hero. We are compromised as that rat of a character is starving, had a sad childhood, didnt mean to do it etc. Human beings like a hero/heroine but such characters often have a tragic flaw and we accept them warts and all. Good overcoming bad is an everlasting theme but the end point is often by a very circuitous route. Oedipus kills his natural father and marries his natural mother fathering children with her. Medea who is a foreigner provides her husband with two strapping lads but she doesnt fit in with her husband Jasons plans. She is confined to the bungalow down the road whilst he pursues a younger woman who is a princess. Medea, having given up her own family and killed once, must and will seek revenge. Oh what a tangled web we weave! Greek tragedies are plays for today: substitute the names and places with modern day replacements and lifes rich tapestry of human problems and frailties flood out of these plays. As well as the plots, the delivery and performance of these tragedies are the beginnings of many theatrical and poetic traditions as well as production techniques. Such plays tell us much about the society in which they were written as they act as a contemporary source of the period. Introducing Greek Tragedy is a new CEF course.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 09:36:03 +0000
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