Comments on: Phoenician Women at Natural Theatricals

By: Kevin Kirby

Kevin Kirby — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:33:08 +0000

Are the louvered window coverings that allow the amount of illumination entering a room know as Venetian blinds or Phoenician blinds? Despite the blindness of Oedipus the window coverings are know as Venetian blinds.

By: Paula Y. Bickham

Paula Y. Bickham — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 03:38:34 +0000

Actually, I don’t believe that it was being a “typical teenager” that drove Creons’s son to decide to sacrafice himself. I got the strongest impression that Euripides portrayed a young man with a loyal and passionate love of country that he decided to do what he did. Menoikeus was not going to be stigmatized as a coward by running away to another country, and thus, made a decision that would emblazon in the minds of Theban citizens a young man who was brave and wlling to die for his country, thus lifting the curse that plagued Thebes. Finkelstein’s Menoikeus portrayed this quite well in the brief time he was on stage.

In Greek theatre various characters gave a “history” or mythological background, if I may, as a point of departure for the audience to follow in understanding the progression of the play. Greek theatre demanded that its audience have good listening skills, as it is still the case to this day. The mythological background is often repeated by various characters in an ancient Greek play. Sometimes repetition is a good thing in a contemporary world where attention spans are short (smile). In “Phoenician Women” I welcomed that repetition because with a short attention span I was kept on track.

By: Ashley Robinson

Ashley Robinson — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 14:02:13 +0000

Laura and Mike,
Just a little 411 on Greek tragedy…
Because of the limitations of the stage when Greek tragedies were first being produced, all battles, sex scenes, and natural disasters took place off-stage, and a messenger came into report them. The director, Bob Bartlett, made a smart choice by having the messenger begin the story of the war between Polyneikes and Etokles, and then splitting the rest of the monologue between the brothers, and finally, Jocasta. If told by one person, lengthy monologues can be very redundant and long-winded (and a lot of pressure on the actor to memorize pages of dialogue) and it only makes sense for the brothers to be able to tell their own stories.

Also, togas are generally identified with the Romans.

Thanks!