Jon -- I think this is terrific. What's the story on the whole project?
Jon Corelis wrote:
> [The palace of Theseus at Trozen, with its gates stage center.
> Lamentation is heard from within. Flanking the palace gates are cult
> statues of Artemis and Aphrodite. On stage are the Chorus. ]
>
> [enter Theseus]
>
> THESEUS: Can any of you women tell me why
> my palace rings with all this lamentation?
> The oracle I've been to gave good news,
> so this is not the welcome I expected.
> Surely my grandfather Pittheus is well?
> He's very old by now, but I'd still hate
> to learn that he no longer was among us.
> CHORUS: It's not the old, Lord Theseus my king,
> that you must mourn, but one who died too young.
> THESEUS: It's not my children, then, that we have lost?
> CHORUS: They live, but motherless, and you are widowed.
> THESEUS: What? Has Phaedra died? How did it happen?
> CHORUS: By hanging: her own hands arranged the rope.
> THESEUS: Heart-struck by grief, or what was the disaster?
> CHORUS: That's all we know: we've only just now come,
> your majesty, to mourn your family's loss.
> THESEUS: Then how can I still wear this joyous garland
> in token of an oracle's good news,
> when what should have been prophesied was death?
> You there inside: unlock the palace doors,
> unbar the gates, open them to show
> my grieving eyes the worst thing they can see.
>
> CHORUS: [sings to melody of Richard Lion-heart's "Ja nuns hons pris
> ne dira sa raison"]:
>
> Unhappy princess who sailed from afar,
> how could you harden your heart to this doom?
> What made you leave this light where your loves are,
> wrapping yourself in the after-life's gloom?
> Losing yourself in a self-imposed strife,
> now you have lost your life.
>
> [Chorus now sings as before, two lines at a time, with Theseus speaking]:
>
> CHORUS: Sorrow is all that is left for your house,
> which you once entered so joyous a bride …
>
> THESEUS: Oh family, children, wife, what ancient curse
> has worked its way through time for our destruction?
>
> CHORUS: Sorrow is all for your desolate spouse,
> and for your orphans, whose mother has died …
>
> THESEUS: This wave of loss has broken over our house
> and drowned us in a flood-tide of despair.
>
> CHORUS: Sorrow no words can express or contain:
> nothing is left but pain.
>
> CHORUS: [speaking] Don't grieve overmuch, my king: your loss
> is one that life has brought to many men.
>
> [in the following again Chorus sings, Theseus speaks, as before]
>
> CHORUS: Theseus our king lives deprived of your love;
> dying you leave him a life worse than death …
>
> THESEUS: What forced her to this act? In all my house
> is there not one of you to speak the truth?
>
> CHORUS: Though he still breathes in this bright world above,
> he takes in darkness with every breath …
>
> THESEUS: Most cherished of all women, you have flown
> beyond our world and taken all joy with you.
>
> CHORUS: Oh weeping monarch, I wish I could say
> you won't grieve more today.
>
> [end Chorus singing]
>
> THESEUS: But what's this tablet fastened to her hand?
> Will it tell us what's happened? Or does she mean
> to beg me to be kind to our poor children
> and not entrust them to a cold stepmother?
> Be comforted, my love: this hearth and home
> will never know another wife than you.
> And here the imprint of her signet ring
> gleams with the last traces of loving light.
> Unwrapping these bound strings that hold it sealed
> will soon reveal what mystery it holds.
> CHORUS: Another punishment descends from heaven:
> O wretched majesty! O ruined house!
> I have no other words for you than these.
> THESEUS: No! No! disaster swells with new destruction.
> CHORUS: What's wrong, my king? Tell us, if we may know.
> THESEUS: This tablet cries aloud
> things too dreadful for speech.
> And is there no way out, is there no end
> to loss and shock and pain?
> What she has written wails the funeral dirge
> for the royal house of Theseus, King of Athens.
> CHORUS: A dread beginning. I dread what is to follow.
> THESEUS: It's bitterness itself to speak the words,
> yet right demands that I must not suppress them.
> Ho, citizens! Hippolytos has dared
> defile the sacred marriage of your king,
> dishonoring the holy light of Zeus.
> O Ocean Lord Poseidon, God of Sea,
> you vowed me once three curses. One of these
> I hereby now invoke against my son:
> destroy Hippolytos this very day,
> if truly you have granted me this power.
> CHORUS: Your majesty, I beg you by the gods,
> recall your curse, or else you may regret it.
> THESEUS: Impossible. And I decree his exile.
> Thus one of these two fates will be his doom:
> Poseidon, if he heeds the curse I've laid,
> will send him headlong to the halls of Hades,
> or, failing that, he'll live in misery,
> a wandering stranger in some foreign land.
> CHORUS: And even as we speak, Hippolytos
> your son approaches. But oh Lord Theseus,
> relax your rage. Your house needs better counsel.
>
>
--
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
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