The Duende Collective PRESENTS
Aeschylus/Auletta
THE PERSIANS
directed by Joshua Pohja
w/ Adrian Rieder, Ramon De Ocampo, Dave Folsom, Max Faugno, Dave Metz and Angela Milton
THE PERSIANS is the earliest of Aeschylus’ plays, and the oldest surviving play in history. This tragedy about the Greek defeat of the Persians in the Battle of Salamís in 480 bc was first presented eight years later, in 472 bc. The play is set in Persia at the court of the mother of King Xerxes I leader of the expedition against Greece, and it is told from the Persian point of view. A messenger arrives with news of defeat and describes the battle in detail. The ghost of Darius, father of Xerxes, is summoned by the Queen to say that pride has brought about the downfall of his impetuous son. Finally, we await the arrival of Xerxes I who has brought about the downfall his father's empire with unbridled hubris. It’s a play about war, but it’s not an anti-war play. It’s about unnecessary war - war guided by arrogance, greed and honor.
Yale Professor and genius Playwright, Robert Auletta, has re-imagined Aeschylus’ classic and set the drama in a modern day Persia. The story humanizes a more realized vision of the Persian struggle through the terror of the American/Iraqi Gulf War. It humanizes the "enemy", and asks great questions of what it is to be a tyrant and mines the true core of where apathy, pride and fear reside. This will be a unique evening of theater as we fundraiser for our April 2010 production.
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