Every Good Morning

Dictators have no time for Tragedy. In their blinkered, paranoid certitude, why would they want to watch a play about the fall of someone mighty. Tragedy is tied to Athenian democracy. As a recent professor of mine said, “It was a democratic form for a democratic audience,” an audience so often restive, even riotous, that “rod holders,” theater police were required to keep order. It is helpful to remember that […]

Achilles’ heroic identity is tied into combat as theater. How one performs in battle before the eyes of both friends and enemies is all important. This ideal of heroism is fiercely competitive. He performs not in the collaborative sense of theater as we might define it. Achilles is the only star, the only director, the only stagehand. After the death of Patroclus, he takes the weight of Greek army upon […]