yrieithydd

Wow!

I'm not quite sure what I expected from the Greek Play but what it was was so much more!

It took me a while to get into it. I was slightly distracting trying to identify the_alchemist and getting used to the surtitles (and seeing how many words I could pick out using my (very) limited Greek.

But then the play took hold and for the last half hour or so (from the point the chorus walked up the road after Jocasta and Oedipus have gone off stage), I was enthralled and stunned. When it finished, I could barely applaud. It was too big for that.

I think it's going to take me a while to process it. I stayed for the post-play discussion which was interesting. The casting came up and one remark really struck me. Someone (Annie I think) said that you never forgot that Oedipus was being played by a woman. But I did. I spent the first half of the play not being entirely sure whether or the actor was female* or not. It was only when Jocasta came on and I was sure she was male that I became sure and even then I tended to forget it. I was uncomfortable when Jocasta and Oedipus embraced because it seemed like two men embracing pretending to be a man and a woman. I'm not quite sure what this reaction indicates; I think it says more about me than anyone else, although perhaps it does point to something wider about the fact that women can take on rôles traditionally assigned to men but that it is still hard for men to take on rôles traditonally assigned to women.

I was amused at one point in the production when the chorus were lighting candles and the_alchemist's really did not want to light. Afterwards, as I unlocked my bicycle I was reminded of St Peter's reluctance to appear at the Easter Vigil!

*There's a rant I've been meaning to write about actor/actress and chairman/chairwoman. The main point of it stands (though it doesn't belong here), but I know understand why actor/actress has gone (is going) the way of author/authress, poet/poetess. I've always held that with actors and actresses the gender is relevant, but tonight has shown me that it is not entirely.