Have you ever seen a Greek tragedy?

The Greek theatre in Syracuse is a millennial historical landmark.  Just think that, every year, people from all around the world, come here just to see the tragedies staged here. The most recent one was  “Eumenedi di Eschio”.   Our school was supposed to go to this show, but unluckily it didn’t happen.

They organised this trip mainly because at our lyceum we study Latin and Greek so the school thought that it was a good idea to let us see and put in place what we have been studying on books for years and years. The tragedies that the school wanted us to see were Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles and “Agamennon” by Eschilus.

Scene from Agamemnon
Final scene and view of audience and theatre- Agamemnon

Perhaps you know the story but it couldn’t hurt to revise.  Oedipus, was the foreigner who 10 years before beat the Sphinx, queen of Thebes. He was a father of four kids and he was married to Giocasta. During his reign there was a plague that was killing all of the people so he asked  an oracle to  help him- it turns out that the cause of the epidemic was Laio, the killer of the king before Oedipus. When  he found and killed him, he received a message that was going to change his life: Laio was his father, Giocasta was his mother and their kids were also his siblings.  What a shock!!

Scene from Oedipus Rex
The ChorusOedipus Rex

The Canadian director, Robert Carsen, takes on the blindness of each of us as an epic and pagan Christ. We are blind and without the courage to stick the buckle of truth in our eyes. Carsen’s interpretation of Oedipus Rex is a human and theatrical monument; in the denudation of the truth, man learns how to take responsibility for sins and destiny, so the director shows us these morals through the blindness and denudation of the actor.

Photo by Le Pera via www.sicilymag.it

Some history about the theatre:

In Sicily we are particularly proud of the theatre because of its history (we think that this is another reason why our school decided to organise a trip to Syracuse).

Between the 238 and 215 a.C the theatre was completely rebuilt but  history says that the first construction was around the 5th century in the 456 a.C. The architect was Damocopos, and originally the theatre only had three tiers and it was a trapezoid, but when they rebuilt it, they changed the shape to a semicircle and it still has this shape. The history of the theatre is too long, but if you are interested you can do some research about it! Especially  if you want to spend a holiday in Sicily!

 

Written by Ilaria M. II AL and Rebecca S. IIAL

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