#and then all of a sudden pylades speaks and the play can move again. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

splendidemendax · 2 years ago

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#the three actor maximum is not a limitation. its an opportunity.

^^^^^ i'm not a huge fan of aeschylus' libation bearers, but the bit where pylades seems like a silent character for most of the play just to speak once-and-only-once is one of my favorite things in the entire genre of greek tragedy

reading about silences in greek tragedy and god. the way the very structure of the trachiniae silences iole and the conventions of the genre prohibit her from being granted a voice.

#you expect orestes to get no answer. no help at all. it's an unsolvable dilemma and everything's stuck.#and then all of a sudden pylades speaks and the play can move again.#it's just such a masterful use of the boundaries and expectations of tragedy. i love a bit that requires its genre to function.#also the theory that cassandra and pylades and the pythia and apollo would all be played by the same actor lives in my head rent-free.#classics #greek #mea res

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