This Restless House (eBook)

Zinnie Harris (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
978-0-571-33263-2 (ISBN)

Infos

'Electrifying . . . This four-hour epic of ambition and power is a sinewy reworking of Aeschylus that explodes into a cacophonous climax.' GUARDIAN ***** Aeschylus' Oresteia opens with Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to the gods; an act which sets in motion a bloody cycle of revenge and counter-revenge. When he in turn is killed at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, their son Orestes takes up the mantle of avenging his father, continuing the bloodshed until peace is ultimately found in the rule of law. Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies. Winner: Best New Play, Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland This Restless House premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in April 2016 in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland.

Zinnie Harris's plays include the multi-award-winning Further than the Furthest Thing (National Theatre/Tron Theatre; winner of the 1999 Peggy Ramsay Award, 2001 John Whiting Award, Edinburgh Fringe First Award), How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court Theatre; joint winner of the Berwin Lee Award), The Wheel (National Theatre of Scotland; joint winner of the 2011 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award), Nightingale and Chase (Royal Court Theatre), Midwinter, Solstice (both RSC), Fall (Traverse Theatre/RSC), By Many Wounds (Hampstead Theatre), the trilogy This Restless House (Citizens Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland), based on Aeschylus' Oresteia and Meet Me at Dawn (Traverse Theatre). Also, Ibsen's A Doll's House for the Donmar Warehouse, Strindberg's Miss Julie for the National Theatre of Scotland and Webster's The Duchess (of Malfi) (Royal Lyceum Theatre). Zinnie received an Arts Foundation Fellowship for playwriting, and was Writer in Residence at the RSC, 2000-2001. She is Professor of Playwriting and Screenwriting at St Andrews University, and is the Associate Director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

Rezensionen

Most fearless of reinventions.

Electrifying... This four-hour epic of ambition and power is a sinewy reworking of Aeschylus that explodes into a cacophonous climax.

Although Harris is largely faithful to Aeschylus' narrative line, she innovates brilliantly.

Breathtaking. Powerful. Trailblazing.

Textauszug

SCENE ONE

A Chorus of old and dishevelled men come on to the stage. They stagger, they limp. Some may even crawl. If they had names they would be things like ‘the ancient one’, ‘the one who can’t see’, ‘hollow face’, or ‘lost in his own thoughts’.

Once on, they look straight at the audience. They stare at the audience without flinching, brazen. One of them has a slight tic, another occasionally moans.

Chorus

go on then avert your gaze

look away

don’t stare at us for too long

turn your heads gentlewomen

men hide behind your hands

you walk past us on the street after all

you close your curtains

shut your door

we’ve seen you do it

you bolt the gate and bolt it again

who can blame you?

we are the abandoned

left out in the rain

yes the given-up on by the gods

and who wants that to cross their land?

They look around.

don’t worry we are impotent

we can hardly stand

we won’t chase you

the most we will do is kind of half a wave

don’t get too near though you might catch something

the shake my hand and my arm falls off

the don’t mind my leg, it’s just a stump

why have the gods left us to this? you ask

did we deserve our witless state?

our pain?

did we offend them?

good question

curse them perhaps?

we aged that’s all.

some are blessed, others not it seems

we sit here as a reminder

say your prayers

do what they tell you

for the gods have no mercy

and life can be long

They look out at the audience.

oh, no one’s leaving?

there’s the door

let me tell you this tale is not for everyone

and it’s not going to be funny either

comedy this is not

if you want to laugh try elsewhere we suggest

Pause.

alright, we’ll start then

the story starts ten years ago

right here in Greece

a woman called Helen

a married woman

a queen

smiled too sweetly at another man

it’s not the smile that mattered

would the gods have minded a smile?

it’s a euphemism

screw the euphemism

you don’t run off to Troy to ‘smile’ at someone

she was snatched, Paris took her

no, she was a harlot

a slut, she opened her legs

she defied the rules of marriage, let us say that

offended the gods

and her husband King Menelaus

fucked-off and fearful of the payback from above

he had to act

so he and his brother, our King Agamemnon got together

they raised an army to bring her back

well – there followed a war

a holy war –

you might have heard of it

a war so terrible

you remember the horse?

I actually think, it starts years before that

it starts with a meal that was served to Thyestes, that’s where it starts

yes the meal of his roasted children, he’s right

before then though the house of Atreus was cursed

you have to go right back to the beginning to understand the blight on this place

the gods have never been happy

I think it started with a girl

Iphigenia

bless her holy name

you can’t start with Iphigenia

why not?

it starts with the eagle

the eagle yes, the day of the sailing

even you agree now?

two armies line up, ready to set sail to get Helen

the two kings at their helm

Menelaus and Agamemnon,

temples visited, prayers said

anxious to set off and bring the beauty home

when overhead, two eagles

soaring

one black one white

fly across, make a great arc in the sky

and everyone remarking

look at that they said

at first they thought it was a blessing from above

oh what luck, two eagles flying over two armies

a sign of the gods’ delight

one black one white

and on the right-hand side too

the side of fortune

what a great day, everyone said

victory is written, given from the heavens

this is a holy war indeed blessed from the start

the army were delighted

the wives saying goodbye to their husbands, reassured

traders knowing their workforce would return

smiles all around

but then those birds,

on closer look, those eagles

turned – a bit ugly

not so nice after all

savage in fact

they swooped down and seeing a hare

large with babies

right there with the army and crowd watching

they ripped it without a second’s thought

ate it

tossing its body

it makes me scratch to remember

it was a bit revolting truth be told

graphic, you know how these things can be

the babies still quivering

what does it mean, King Agamemnon? the soldiers cried

what does it signify, King Menelaus? asked the army wives

if this came from the gods then what is the message?

King Agamemnon couldn’t answer

he was as stumped as they were

and, not liking to be silent in front of his people,

he called for the holiest in the city

the high priest and his entourage

the holy man came to the port, looked at the shredded hare

chewed his beard

stroked his face

it means victory of some sort, that is certain

a blessing he said

the crowd go crazy

but that’s not all, he adds

the gods have given you a coda

a little postscript

you aren’t making sense your holiest

King Agamemnon then irritated

the holy man raised his voice

yes, you will take Troy

restore honour to marriage

yes, you will slaughter the men

yes, you will walk over the corpses of those you have killed

but –

after

afterwards perhaps –

here is the uncomfortable coda –

the gods see all the death ahead and are not happy

what do you mean holy man?

Agamemnon again

restless

irritated

the gods can’t be against us?

no, but there’s a cost for this war,

and they want you to feel it

what? they cried, you aren’t being clear

the gods aren’t being clear came the reply

but I think they need appeasing

Beat.

and that is how he left a worried King

a father

the army ready to depart

let’s just go

his first thought

stupid holy man, what does he know of gods and wars?

let’s just –

be off

let’s just –

get out of here, do the damn thing

we are assured that the gods are on our side

but the weather was not with them

a storm, a hurricane

every time they left the port, they were blown back

it’s too dangerous the King was told to leave in this weather

the ships were being wrecked on their own rocks

it’s the gods cried the naval officers

I told you said the holy man

they need appeasing

and so the lonely King –

this is the part you might not like –

the faint-hearted still have a chance to leave

it’s a bit, you know, the next bit

you have to understand how it is for men like Agamemnon

himself a holy leader

anointed by the heavens themselves

the men already sick from being on the boat, and not having even left the shore

his brother, miserable and worried for his city

the crowd, bloodthirsty for victory

he took to prayer

he went down on his knees and offered himself

listened

harder

and harder

until

he knew he had to offer something so dear that the tears fell as he heard the answer

something so precious –

NO, not that, he shouted out

then be damned, howled the gods right back

I am damned if I do, and damned if I don’t he answered in a sweat

do what? said his wife

his Queen

Clytemnestra – his only true love

busy with their new-born

do what, precisely?

but he couldn’t tell her

how could he even utter the words?

do what? she repeated

but he shook his head and left her alone

do what? she shouted after him. Do what? Do what?

this is where the daughter comes in

this is where, well

well what is there more precious to a father than a daughter?

any daughter, but Iphigenia?

bless her holy name

what is there more precious to lose?

Iphigenia was their first born

others came later – Orestes, Electra – but Iphigenia,

even the people who weren’t her father had to agree

she was pretty special

a much-loved child, adored by her parents

not spoiled but –

tell them about the suitcase

the suitcase kind of breaks my heart, do we have to talk about the case?

tell them about the yellow dress then

do we have to fill in the details?

they have imaginations, they can colour it in for themselves

but without the stain, without the detail?

what is a story without the pigmentation?

Iphigenia

bless her holy name

just eleven

her body just starting to show the first signs of womanhood

Iphigenia

dressed in yellow

cadmium yellow

with a red ribbon

and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.5.2016
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• ISBN-10: 0-571-33263-3 / 0571332633
• ISBN-13: 978-0-571-33263-2 / 9780571332632