Sophocles: These Seven Sicknesses
Play Description
In THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES, Sophocles' seven surviving plays — OEDIPUS, IN TRACHIS, PHILOKTETES, IN COLONUS, AJAX, ELEKTRA and ANTIGONE — combine with music and food to create a stunning portrait of the human condition, where the intermingling of chance and fate yields disquieting results. A witty and relevant interpretation of the classics, THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES is an epic examination of the past and a window on the present.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (5 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 220 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“One of the many surprising things about director Sean Graney’s SOPHOCLES: THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES — his altogether fascinating and original interpretation of the surviving tragedies by the seminal force in ancient Greek theater (and most all of Western theater that followed) — is how often he and his actors make the audience laugh. To be sure, much of the laughter in this epic production is blackly comic — an acknowledgment of the colossally demented mess human beings make of things, whether political or personal. It is laughter in the face of monumental violence, selfishness, lies, betrayals, egotism, envy, lost honor, an unending cycle of carnage and revenge, and a general madness, especially in wartime. It is the laughter of self-awareness and compulsion. It is the laughter that comes when the horrors just keep piling up, and the maniacal absurdity of it all seems unstoppable. And it is laughter (and attitude) that could not be more hip, contemporary or, as the title suggests, ‘sick.’ Graney’s intensely visceral adaptation, which runs about three hours and 40 minutes is bookended by Sophocles’s most familiar plays — beginning with OEDIPUS THE KING and ending with both ELEKTRA and ANTIGONE.” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
“Over the course of this ambitious adaptation of Sophocles’s seven surviving plays, blood erupts from just about every orifice, onto just about every article of clothing and just about every square inch of the narrow stage.” —Catherine Rampell, New York Times
“When Aristotle immortalized the term hubris, he could well have been talking about Sean Graney … who, this fall, decided to adapt and stage not one Sophoclean drama, but all seven at once … The rakish SEVEN SICKNESSES would be a boon to many colleges.” —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
Author(s)
Sean GraneySean Graney is the Artistic Director and Founder of The Hypocrites, a Chicago theater company. As a playwright, he has received productions of THE 4TH GRADERS PRESENT AN UNNAMED SUICIDE at 59E59 in New York, The Hypocrites and the side project in Chicago; AUTOPHAGY at the Drama League Director's Fest in 2007 in New York; PORNO at the side project in Chicago; as well as many adaptations and short plays. As a director, Mr. Graney directed over 30 productions since 1997. He was a participant in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors from 2004/6. He has won two Joseph Jefferson Citations for Outstanding Direction.
SophoclesSophocles (c. 496 – 406 BCE) was the most celebrated of the ancient Greek tragedians. Of Sophocles' more than 120 plays, only seven have survived in their entirety, the most famous of which feature Oedipus and Antigone and are generally known as the Theban plays.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 4/5/2013 |
| Pages | 186 |
| ISBN | 9780881455656 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
First produced by The Hypocrites, Chicago
First produced in New York at The Flea Theater
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
Upcoming and Recent Productions
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