SCIT happenings, week of 2/23/09

With our first major hurdles past us, the week after auditions was somewhat of a relief. The translation is basically finished, the play is cast (though not definitively -- more on this later), and our able director is now envisioning the final, staged product.

However, even with the translation done, we're still faced with some issues of reinterpretation. To paraphrase another dramatist, the fault in this case lies not in ourselves, but in our star -- that is, Aristophanes himself. For the man was a scatalogist of the highest order, and in adapting his language and imagery we've had to face the fact that he was quite deeply offensive, even to those of us who scoff at bowdlerizing Victorian translators. This is mostly a question of audience reception, and the general consensus is that we'll make it clear that this show ain't for the kiddies. (Plato says somewhere that they prefer puppet shows to comedies, anyway.)

To stir up interest in our project and kick ideas around, we held a colloquium on aspects of interpretation and production on Thursday, February 26. (See Al's description below.) The turnout was great for a week when everyone was busy with prospective student events -- thanks to all who came out! The meeting covered everything from specific practices of dramaturgy to Aristophanes reception to the political perspectives of ancient comedy.

Jason kicked things off with a look at the parabasis ("stepping aside" of the chorus during a comedy, at which time the members remove their costumes and speak directly to the audience). He reviewed the history of scholarship on the matter down to the present day, even to our own production. We still have some decisions to make on this crucial (not to mention lengthy!) portion of the Acharnians. In short, we'd like to achieve something meaningful while skirting excessive "meta-theatricality."

James led us through a chapter of Simon Goldhill's How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today on the actor's role. While of course no one but Socrates thought tragedy and comedy were similar enough for the same person to write in both genres, Goldhill's study nevertheless offered several insights on bringing ancient texts of whatever style to the stage. In particular the discussion found its way to the question of props and material objects, which we think we'll have in abundance. After all, as Foivos has pointed out, Dikaiopolis' offer to put his head on the chopping block is not merely metaphorical, and we've devised our own twist on this scene of physical literalness.

Aristophanes in Performance, 421 BC - AD 2007, edited by Edith Hall and Amanda Wrigley was the treasure trove of Aristophanic history that Al served up for us. We noted with interest the relative lack of productions of the Acharnians over the long term, with a major bump in output in the years during and after the Vietnam War. People have evidently found the anti-war message of the play, whatever that might ultimately entail, "bon à penser," as the saying goes (more on this in a moment). It was suggested to us by Sarah M. that we look for correlations between "conflict years" and show productions and see how ours fits in.

Foivos gave us a whirlwind session of "Everything You Need to Know about Aristophanic Politics in 10 Minutes." Poet and propagandist, populist and purebred, Aristophanes has rather fittingly worn as many masks as he has interpreters. Whatever one thinks about Aristophanes' personal views, many readers, and I would count the SCIT crew among them, are willing to treat an Aristophanic comedy as (among other things) basically an act of political commentary.

I ended our colloquium with a few questions about what such a commentary might consist in, and in particular what thought processes go into making Aristophanes relevant for today. Adapting the Acharnians now has its difficulties, especially because one does not want to make Aristophanes something he was not: namely, a principled, non-violent pacifist. (And this is all on the too-easy assumption that the comic hero speaks for the poet!) Our production will certainly have a "message" of sorts, but mostly at the expense of everyone, with Aristophanes' spirit, if not his personal politics, guiding our decisions.

Finally, the issue of offensiveness reared its ugly head again, but we encountered nothing but encouragement. Nick said it best: "Hey, 'classics' do not mean 'classy'!" On that note, we'll see how the cast reacts to our first read-through...

-Matt