| A night scene, windless, hushed.
A starlit sky.
A high wall with ladders.
WITCH
Great Zeus stopped the winds
and why. He sends winds to other men’s expeditions, winds
of sorrow, winds of hardship, winds to set sail, winds to drop sail
and winds of waiting but here upon the black and blasted straits
of Aulis he sends no winds
and an angry fleet keep asking why are we waiting, why is King Agamemnon
hiding from us in his tent – because,
because King Agamemnon, marshall of the fleet, made a vow to the
Goddess, Artemis of the sacred
grove, a promise that he reneged on. Disastrous calm has
driven him to augury, to Calchas
the prophet who scans the flight of birds.
Spotlight on CALCHAS the prophet
On the opposite side AGEMEMNON emerges from his tent.
The WITCH hides under the wall to listen.
CALCHAS
King Agamemnon – to Artemis, goddess of the moon you vowed
that you would sacrifice the most beautiful you knew. You shall
not unmoor your ships until you pay your dues. Your wife Clytemnestra
has a child Iphigenia who
in all the radiance of young beauty has been selected by the goddess
Artemis to be offered in sacrifice in order that the Greek ships
can leave these narrow straits for the towers and battlements of
Troy. Then and only then will amorous Helen
be restored to her husband Menelaus,
Troy in ashes, her nobles slaughtered, her women, slave women to
bring home here to Argos and plentitude of spoils.
AGAMEMNON
My daughter, the jewel of my heart …. no and no and no again.
CALCHAS
Her mother Clytemnestra must bring her here, intended as a bride
for swift-footed Achilles,
son of goddess Thetis, nurtured in the watery waves.
AGAMEMNON
You think I would deceive my wife and child.
CALCHAS
The Gods think it.
AGAMEMNON
Be gone, you old werewolf.
CALCHAS
Your daughter’s death ensures victory for Greece.
AGEMEMNON
Unspeakable … unthinkable …
CALCHAS
In time of war, unspeakable, unthinkable things are done. For the
sake of the Gods and for our land thus blasted with misfortune,
send for her at once and sacrifice her on the altar of divinity.
AGAMEMNON
Who else have you spoken to of this hatching.
CALCHAS
Your brother Menelaus and Odysseus
of the House of Athens. The goddess Artemis, lovely lady of the
woodland and the forest is growing impatient and your men wrathful
at such long waiting.
AGAMEMNON
I will not do it.
CALCHAS
It will be done.
CALCHAS goes.
AGAMEMNON stands, when he turns the WITCH is in front of him.
WITCH
Hail Agamemnon, the sacker of cities … the child shall have
garlands put upon her head and sprinklings of lustral water. She
comes to nourish with the drops of flowing blood the altar of the
divine goddess from her own throat, her lovely body’s throat.
And grant that Agamemnon may wreathe the Hellene lances with a crown
of fame and his own brows with the imperishable glory.
AGAMEMNON goes.
An OLD MAN who has overheard pulls himself up from under the wall
OLD MAN
Dark. Darkness. The story goes of how Atreus,
father of Agamemnon had his brother’s children foully and
horribly slain, then boiled and served up at a banquet, all this,
so that his own progeny, so that Agamemnon might rule. No one is
safe. A curse is a curse. I was given as a young man with his wife
Clytemnestra in all her dazzlement. I saw so much, too much. Oh
the passions, the passions; yet from great houses both were sprung.
|
NOTES FROM THE
CAST AND DIRECTOR DISCUSSING THE TEXT - DAY TWO OF REHEARSALS
Unusual for a play to begin with a question.
The Witch is an invention of Edna O'Brien - to read why, go to 'conversation
with Edna O'Brien'.
Some discussion as to what the original promise was that Agamemnon
reneged on - did he offend Artemis by saying he was a better hunter?
Did he promise her a beautiful thing to thank the Gods for the birth
of his daughter? Is this the debt being called in now?
Pronounced 'Cal-cas' as it feels the strongest
way to say his name.
Discussion whether this is a narrative speech
or whether this is an active speech, played in the moment.
Iphigenia is sacrificed for the sake of beauty
- her beauty is traded for Helen's, like a currency.
Edna O'Brien's '…' signifies a pause
equivalent to a comma.
Achilles was hidden as a girl by his mother
to stop him going to war. This must have had a profound effect on
him as a warrior.
Describes the time in which the play was
written - a time of war for more than 20 years. All moral balance
is long gone - it feels important to know this when considering
the psychology of Aulis at this time. Agamemnon may oscillate in
his decision making because his instinctive antenna have been thrown
out by this constant grinding war.
This speech makes Agamemnon change his mind
- for vanity and glory - and write the letter condemning his daughter
to death.
Hellene means 'Greek'.
I was given - means that he was given as
part of Clytemnestra's dowry, when she came to Agamemnon, and so
would have know all their gory secrets.
Passions here is both negative and positive - they weren't behaving
nobly, but are noble.
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