Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Philip's Commentary On

THE BURIAL AT THEBES
(a Version of Sophocles’ Antigone)
by SEAMUS HEANEY
          and
GOD by WOODY ALLEN

 

 

AN EVENING OF CONTRASTS

Logic and illogic.  Tragedy and comedy.  Order and disorder.  Inevitability and Randomness.

• When: Monday, January 8, at  7 pm
             Tuesday, January 23, at 7 pm
• Where:  Room 9
• What: THE BURIAL AT THEBES (a Version of Sophocles’ Antigone) by SEAMUS HEANEY
            And...       GOD by WOODY ALLEN
• Who: UUCPA Thespians
• Why: Why not?

Seamus Heaney’s new translation of the third of Sophocles Theban tragedies is eminently readable.  Your interest is piqued by Antigone’s opening lines:

Ismene, quick, come here!
What’s to become of us?
Why are we always the ones?

Even if you know the plot – after all, everyone in the original Greek audience knew how the story would turn out before they entered the theatre – you are caught up in the immediacy of how each character will act and react to forward its inevitable development.

There is also a certain relevance to current events.  When Creon says:

Solidarity, friends
Is what we need.  The whole crew must close ranks
The safety of our state depends upon it.
Our trust.  Our friendships.  Our security.
Good order in the city.  And our greatness.

can you hear a precursor to remarks of a certain US president?

The tragedy winds its inexorable way to Creon’s final speech:

Take me, hide me, blindfold me from these
And keep your distance.  Everything I’ve touched
I have destroyed.  I’ve nobody to turn to,
Nowhere I can go.  My recklessness and pride
I paid for in the end.  The blow came quick.

We will then have a brief intermission to shift gears and prepare for Woody’s zany spoof of almost everything.  Like the tragedy, he has a chorus.  And some of his characters have “Greek” names such as Trichinosis, Diabetes, and Hepatitis.  The Writer decides to get in the Act at some point,  Woody gets called on himself to “explain” what’s happening, members of the audience get called up to become part of the play.  When the final curtain falls we still aren’t sure just what happened; but if you share my warped sense of humor you’ll be delighted with it, whatever it was.

Both plays have lots of characters, so you should get to read a part in each of them as we make the journey from the sublime to the ridiculous.  As usual, it would be nice to balance the two readings, so let me know if you’re coming Monday 1/8 or Tuesday 1/23. Make a reservation (email thespians-info@uucpa.org or call me)  if you can, but you’ll still be welcome if you just show up at seven o’clock prompt on either evening.

Philip Hodge, Chair.