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Radar L.A. Review: 'Prometheus Bound'

Catherine O’Sullivan |
September 22, 2013 | 12:17 p.m. PDT

Contributing Writer

"Prometheus Bound" at the Getty (The Getty)
"Prometheus Bound" at the Getty (The Getty)
Do you ever wonder what makes something last? Millions of antiquities and classics have vanished down the maw of time and entropy. Who knows why the Parthenon stands, the Mona Lisa still smiles, and The Pieta resides in a museum in Rome. Most of it is undoubtedly luck.

But some things do survive and maybe it’s not all random. Persistence through war, time and destruction may be a function of truth and meaning that does not change regardless of cultural and political swings. For this I am profoundly grateful.

"Prometheus Bound" at the Getty Villa in Malibu is such a work. The new translation by Joel Agee, lovingly and reverentially directed by Travis Preston and featuring Ron Cephas Jones as the very definition of the suffering yet righteous Prometheus, is a case in point.

Attributed to Aeschylus and created about 400 years before the birth of Christ, the story seems simple enough. Prometheus is an immortal who gets on the wrong side of Zeus by giving man everything he needs to define himself and survive: fire, arts, medicine and technology. Zeus, having concluded he’s not all that keen on “man,” had decided to get rid of him and create something he likes better. But by helping man, Prometheus has blown his plan. Prometheus’ punishment is to be chained and impaled on a windswept precipice, tortured and tormented throughout all eternity. But giving man all he needs to flourish is not Prometheus’ only crime. In the battle of the Titans—Zeus against his father Cronus—Prometheus helped Zeus. And as every school kid knows, the worst thing you can do when dealing with a bully (or megalomaniac) is remind him that he once needed you.

But there is a little bit more going on. Greek mythology is filled with meaning, interpretation and symbolism mostly lost to the modern way of thinking, and the entire play takes place at the intersection of the physical and metaphysical world. This is told through subtly directed stage lighting illuminating Prometheus’ suffering, eerie offstage singing, and minimal musical score composed of saxophone, percussion and bass. Prometheus is chained to a windswept precipice, represented here by an enormous metallic wheel, a brilliant staging device driving home with a vengeance the notion of “eternity.” He is kept company by a chorus of Oceanids who sway and sing, dance, flee, cower, fight and bemoan his fate. Prometheus, for all his railing and righteous agony, goads Zeus via his messenger Hermes, telling him he knows something that will bring him down, but he’s not going to tell him what it is.

This is a curious thing to do. Prometheus is so sure he is right that even when offered an out, he elects to stay exactly where he is, and it is here that context becomes everything in understanding Prometheus Bound. In Greek mythology “hubris,” or insufficient deference to the gods, is the greatest of all moral offenses. Prometheus doesn’t just disobey Zeus, even when he’s stuck him out on the edge of nowhere; he rants and raves about the injustice of it all. To the early Greeks, this would have been a major moral and (clearly) practical mistake.

Personally, I would have liked to hear Zeus’ other ideas. “Man” seems to have made kind of a mess of things. Perhaps Prometheus should have held back his gifts.

"Prometheus Bound" has been presented and performed many times. Ideologically, it is an incredibly fecund piece of art. However, I can’t imagine a more passionate and accessible translation than Joel Agee’s.

"Prometheus Bound" will be in production at the Getty Villa through September 28, 2013.

More coverage of Radar L.A. Festival 2013 coming soon.

Reach Catherine via email or follow her on Twitter.



 

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