In surveying this summer’s surge in classical drama on local stages (“Classics Comeback,” July 3), I asked playwright-director Will Hollis Snider what drew him to the ancient Greek tragedy of Orestes for his latest work. His full response wasn’t included in that story, but with Cambiare Productions opening the show this weekend, it seemed an apt time to share it.
Will Hollis Snider: What drew me to Orestes above all else are its themes, and one in particular hits me quite personally. This young man has been told his entire life that his destiny is to one day return home to kill his mother. He’s commanded by Apollo to do this, and if he refuses, he will live a life in torment. He follows this command blindly, and when he commits the deed, he is tormented by furies for doing exactly what he was commanded to do. Afterward, he begins to question these commands.
I’ve always been fascinated by characters dealing with their faith. Two of my favorite plays are Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. Both are essentially about a man questioning his faith. This theme barely scratches the surface in Euripides’ original – Orestes questions Apollo’s commands but only sparingly – but it resonated so much with me that I wanted to explore and enhance it in my own production. And if this theme resonated so much with me, it has to resonate with a potential audience, too – at least I hope so. Ordinary people have been questioning their faith for millennia. Orestes commits a heinous act because God told him to, and acts much worse than [the one committed by] Orestes are carried out daily in the name of God. Orestes truly believes what he is doing is right and just, but as soon as he does so, he is immediately tormented by the furies. Are the furies manifestations of his own guilt for what he did? Has he been brainwashed his entire life?
Instead of Orestes spouting through the entire play that his actions were just and sanctioned by Apollo, I wanted him to go on a journey to figure out what was causing his own torment. Is he crazy, are the gods just fucking with him, or does he truly feel tremendous guilt for killing his mother?
In the original text, Orestes questions Apollo’s command a few times but never comes out and questions Apollo’s existence, though this thought seems to bubble under the surface a few times in the play. However, at the end Apollo magically appears and fixes everything. I wanted this question to bubble underneath throughout the entire play but also never to state whether the gods truly exist or not, to let that question linger with the audience after the show has ended.
What shapes our belief and faith? What makes some people’s faith so unwavering? And what makes us begin to question that faith? I think Orestes’ character is a great one in which to explore this theme.
Orestes runs July 30-Aug. 15, Thursday-Saturday, 8pm, at the Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo. For more information, call 524-3761 or visit www.cambiareproductions.com.
This article appears in July 31 • 2009.