SOPHOCLES
PHILOCTETES –a tragedy on humanity
25/7/2017 Αisxylia Festival
“Troops from Methone, Thaumacia, Meliboea
and rugged Olizon were led by Philoctetes
the skilled archer, in seven ships, each with fifty men,
expert archers. But Philoctetes stayed behind on Lemnos,
the sacred island, in horrific pain, abandoned.
Achea’s sons had left him there in agony;
wounded by a snake bite. He lay there in torment.
But soon the Argives by their ships would have reason to remember him”.
Iliad, Book II
But Philoctetes lives in Lemnos by himself for over ten years and has not forgotten them.
He ponders again and again on the moments of his journey and abandonment
and has all the time in the world
to live and relive the martyrdom and solace
the need of human contact with his fellow men and the beauty of his solitude
the hatred but also the nostalgia for his enemies.
Nailed but also free to ponder on friendliness and enmity
compassion and negligence
tolerance and heartlessness
salvation and humiliation.
Salvation which turns out to be humiliation.
Philoctetes, the skilled archer, who was glorified by ending Hercules’ martyrdom
cannot end his own martyrdom.
Philoctetes who loves whatever he acquires
when he is left alone with his sickness
clings on it as if clinging onto a beloved person.
Loves the wound that does not kill him but which also does not have a remedy
the wound inflicted by his beloved enemies.
And there, below the abandoned sky of the sacred island of Lemnos
inside his two-entrance cave
he coils around the wound
which is his only certainty and consolation.
And maybe only then can we imagine him being happy.
Translation: Nicoletta Frintzila
Direction: Martha Frintzila
Light Design: Felice Ross
Music: Andys Skordis
Set Design: Vassilis Mantzoukis
Odysseus, Spy disguised as a Trader, Hercules: George Frintzilas
Neoptolemus: Michalis Panadis
Philoctetes: George Vourdamis-Mavrogenis
Chorus:
Nefeli Ananiadi, Christina Andreou, Rubini Vergi, Maria Dialoupi, Marietta Deloti,Konstantinos Zarmakoupis, Dina Katsambiri, Elina Kioupaki, Sonia Koulepi,
Evi Koutalianou, Dimitris Kypraios, Francesca Minutoli, Konstantinos Mylonas, Vassia Balla, Anastasia Brouzioti, Jo Nassiopoulou, Christina Ntakou, Andreas Xiaris, Gogo Panagouli, Clairi Papadopoulou, Stella Papakonstantinou, Chryssa Parianou, Chrisanthi Pikoula, Vicky Polychroni, Vicky Raftopoulou, Daphni Tsiridou, Vassiliki Tzouani, Rubini Fefe, Georgia Filiou, Litsa Frintzila, Lazaria Frangou, Petros Chatzopoulos, Dimitra Christogiannopoulou.
