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Philoctetes

12-15 October 2007, University Theatre, The Arts Centre
Production credits
Imagine Philoctetes...
the bandaged smelling foot...
a man who roared on an island for ten years...
Imagine in his hands - black
from the dried blood of animals,
a bow of torn silver
that noised arrows loose like a wild heart...

​
​-
Sophocles
Written in 409 BCE by one of the great playwrights of the ancient Greek stage, Sophocles' Philoctetes tells of a man, crippled by an agonising, never-healing wound from a snakebite inflicted by the gods, who is deserted on an island by his comrades. The play begins as, ten years later, they return for the sole precious possession that has sustained him for all this time: the silver bow of Heracles, the weapon that, it has been prophesied, will bring victory to the Greeks in their long-standing stalemate in the war against Troy.

Peter Falkenberg's conception of Sophocles' tragedy re-imagines Philoctetes' suffering as prefiguring the suffering of Christ, with the chorus using lyrics of Leonard Cohen that contemplate the impossibility of love against the ethics of wealth, power and war. Richard Till's set creates an island where humans as well as gods are trapped in isolation, each imagining the events that have sent them inexorably to a conflict that can only be won at the sacrifice of love, friendship and humanity.

The decision of Neoptolemos, sent to recover the bow from the wounded Philoctetes, is between honest violence and corrupt words, honour and subterfuge, and the warmth of human contact against the cold, isolating demands of the state.   The tragedy of Philoctetes is not his suffering or his death, but that he too must join in the bloodshed at Troy.
The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it’s done –
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.


-Leonard Cohen's A Thousand Kisses Deep sung by Philoctetes
Picture
The light came through the window,
Straight from the sun above,
And so inside my little room
There plunged the rays of Love.



-Leonard Cohen's Love Itself sung by Athena
Picture
And when the hunger for your touch
​Rises from the hunger,
You whisper, “You have loved enough,
Now let me be the Lover".


-Leonard Cohen's You Have Loved Enough sung by Hera

Picture
Picture
I smile when I’m angry
I cheat and I lie
I do what I have to do
To get by
But I know what is wrong.
And I know what is right.
And I’d die for the truth
In My Secret Life


-Leonard Cohen's  In My Secret Life sung by Odysseus
Picture
Don’t really have the courage
To stand where I must stand,
Don’t really have the temperament
To lend a helping hand.


-Leonard Cohen's The Land of Plenty sung by Neoptolemus
May everyone live
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.


-Leonard Cohen's Here it is, sung by Heracles
Picture
Suddenly the night has grown colder.
The god of love preparing to depart.
Aphrodite hoisted on his shoulder.
They slip between the sentries of the heart.



-Leonard Cohen's Alexandra Leaving sung by Aphrodite
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • A brief history...
    • Manifestos and Writings
    • Who We Are
    • The University Connection
    • Shirley Horrocks documentary
    • Training and Devising
    • Home, Space and Design
  • WHATS ON
    • The Passionate Puritan
  • EDUCATION
    • Kids Holiday Programmes
    • Schools Workshops
    • Adult workshops
  • PRODUCTIONS 1979 - present
    • The Cat Eleonore
    • The Deadbeat Opera
    • Babylon Berlin
    • Beggars Banquet
    • Woyzeck
    • The Axe
    • Endgame
    • Digitising Performance
    • Erewhon: Over the Range
    • A Summer Night's Dream
    • How Dare You
    • A Winter's Tale
    • Ars Acustica
    • Alice
    • The Black Rider
    • Frankenstein
    • The Mauricio Kagel Project
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • Kafka's Amerika
    • Ubu Nights >
      • Past Ubu Nights >
        • Ma Ubu Night
        • Ubu Through the Looking Glass
        • Ubu in Wonderland Ubu Night
        • Frankenstein Ubu Night
        • Casablanca Ubu Night
        • Faust Ubu Night
        • Not Hamlet Ubu Night
        • Punk Ubu Night
        • The Art of the Deal Ubu Night
        • Crossroads Ubu Night
        • Ubu Shows Us the Way to Brecht's Whiskey Bar
        • The Devil and the Blues Ubu Night
        • Bowie Ubu Night
        • Warhol Ubu Night
        • Berlin Kabarette
        • Beat Ubu Night
        • Twin Peaks Ubu Night
        • David Lynch Ubu Night
        • Kafka Ubu Night
        • Tango Ubu Night
        • Ubu Ubu Night
        • Lovecraft Ubu Night
    • Canterbury Tales
    • The Soldier's Tale
    • Bluebeard's Castle >
      • Bluebeard's Castle credits
    • I Sing the Body Electric
    • Big Heads Protest
    • Hereafter
    • Passion, Pulse and Power
    • The Earthquake in Chile
    • Don Giovanni Invites you to Dinner
    • Doctor Faustus
    • The Marvellous Corricks >
      • Corricks - Credits
    • Distraction Camp
    • Remake
    • Ella and Susn
    • There and Back Again
    • Faust Chroma
    • Enigma Emmy Goering/Nico Sphinx of Ice
    • Change Proposal
    • Faust Feast
    • Diana Down Under
    • Philoctetes >
      • Production Credits - Piloctetes
    • Fantasia
    • Christmas Shopping
    • Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
    • Achternbusch in the Antipodes
    • Caucasian Chalk Circle
    • Samson Airline
    • Antigone
    • Kabarett Kabul
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • The Well Intentioned Wife
    • The Last Days of Mankind
    • Bakkhai / Diotek
    • Krapp's Last Tape
    • Murderer Hope of Women / The Philosopher's Stone
    • Comrade Savage
    • Love on a Bicycle
    • Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass in Twelve Movements
    • Medea
    • Songs to the Judges
    • Resolution Island
    • Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus
    • The Empire Builders
    • States of Shock
    • Robinson Crusoe or: I That Was Born To Be My Own Destroyer
    • Power
    • MedeaMaterial
    • Salome
    • Electra
    • The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls
    • Hamletmachine
    • Oresteia
    • A Respectable Wedding
    • Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
    • Cloudkiwiland
    • Double Act / Postponeless >
      • double act credits
    • Preversions
    • The Mortal Pleasure of Wander Lust
    • Red Cross & Takeaway
    • Lulu
    • Cowboy Mouth
    • The Meeting >
      • the meeting credits
    • Action / Tongues
    • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
    • A Letter from L
    • Dinosaurs and All the Rubbish / The Hunting of the Snark
    • Free Theatre Christmas Show
    • The Ride Across Lake Constance
    • Electra
    • In Three Minds
    • The Rapist Over Suzannah
    • 1984: The Future Is Now
    • Make-up Ground down / Texts for Decomposition
    • Leonce and Lena
    • Court Case: Free Theatre vs The Arts Centre
    • The Almost Free Theatre Kabernette
    • The Joffongract
    • King Lear
    • Kabarett
    • King Ubu
    • Black Cat Cabaret
    • The Gas Heart/Ox on the Roof/The Mirror Wardrobe One Fine Evening
    • Jazz Cellar Dada / Heavy Metal Cabaret
    • Round Dance
    • Woyzeck
  • Te Puna Toi
    • Past Te Puna Toi Projects
    • Artists in Residence
  • SUPPORT
  • CONTACT
  • CNZ application