Orestea
Carmelo Rifici offers a re-reading of The Oresteia by Aeschylus, restoring its original character of founding trauma: not an ancient tale, rather the point at which humanity realises that violence is to be organised rather than eliminated. An examination of the fragility of our idea of justice and of what we have lost in the passage from antiquity to logos.
Carmelo Rifici explores the origins of Western democracy, taking his cue from the only classic Greek trilogy to survive intact up to the present: The Oresteia by Aeschylus, composed of the tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. In the story of the nostos, the “return” of Agamemnon from the Trojan war to Argos – where he is immediately killed, together with Cassandra, by Clytemnestra, to then be vindicated by Orestes, in turn persecuted by the Erinyes, until a trial breaks this chain of crime – , Rifici explores the theory that democracy is not the result of a desire for peace, but rather of the need to govern unavoidable violence; the polis, the city-state, is not an alternative to the brutality of war and vendetta, but rather its most acceptable form. The play sets two worlds side-by-side: the archaic forces – ancient polytheistic wisdom that embodies sacrificial memory – and the abstraction of logos, under the guidance of a single God, which seeks to contain, rather than overcome, the concept of vendetta.
Duration: the play is currently in production and the duration may vary
