Children of Herakles (review)

Peter Sellars's production of Euripides' rarely staged Children of Herakles at the American Repertory Theatre was at once his first of Euripides and the play's first professional outing in the United States. (Sellars's staging had its international premiere at the Ruhr Biennale in September 2002.) It was only the seventh professional production of Children of Herakles worldwide in the past two hundred years. Sellars did more than blow the dust off an ancient Greek artifact—he plopped the concerns and conflicts of Euripides' Athens down squarely before the twenty-first-century Cambridge audience, like an obstacle we couldn't get around for the space of an evening. A central miraculous event of the play is the rejuvenation of the ancient hero Iolaus: Sellars accomplished a rejuvenation of the ancient forgotten text while plumbing the historical gravity of contemporary political conundrums. Most importantly, the production achieved the potential of theatre to serve (as Sellars termed it in the program) as one of "the last remaining public spaces" in contemporary society.

Euripides' play was indeed only the centerpiece to a three-part evening that began with a discussion of the global refugee crisis and ended (for the intrepid who chose to remain) with a film. Each night the discussions featured different speakers on immigration policy and refugee issues, who articulated the extent and complexity of contemporary crises. The discussions and play were complemented by a film series curated by the Harvard Film Archive as well as a light supper (catered by a local immigrant-owned restaurant). On the evening I attended, the pre-show discussion brought together the director of a nonprofit refugee support service in Boston and a political refugee from Liberia. After the performance, Bosnian food was served on paper plates and a film shot on Hi-8 camcorder by a teenage Cambodian immigrant (Sokly "Don Bonus" Ny) was screened.

Sellars risked losing his audience by sandwiching two hours of Greek drama between a forty-five minute discussion and an hour-long film. But each step of the long journey was handled with care and tact. For instance local media celebrity Christopher Lydon was once a moderator for the pre-show discussion. A former public TV news anchor and creator of The Connection (a public radio talk show dedicated to in-depth discussion of current events, the arts, and culture), Lydon's moderating lent credibility and familiarity to the pre-show proceedings. In a brilliant move, Sellars also cast Lydon as half of the two-person Chorus (along with actress Heather Benton). Seated at a table downstage right, reading their lines with barely a trace of actorly inflection, the Chorus truly became the surrogate of the audience—and by extension, the community.

This choice exemplified the best aspects of the production. Sellars's spare, post-Brechtian staging of Euripides' drama kept the focus tightly on the unfolding moral dilemmas. Foremost among these was what should be done to protect the stateless children of Herakles (portrayed by a multicultural cast of refugee and immigrant youth from the Greater Boston area). The Athenians precipitate a war with Sparta, and then take in the refugees. Within the story, an oracle declares that the Athenians will prevail if a virgin is offered in sacrifice. One of Herakles' daughters, Macaria, heroically volunteers to become the victim to save the lives of her siblings. The children's aged guardian Iolaus is rejuvenated (for one day) in the battle, and the Spartans are overcome. The unrepentant Spartan leader Eurystheus is brought before the Athenians (in chains and an orange jump suit). Herakles' mother, Alcmene demands and is granted, the right to kill him in vengeance. The Chorus concludes by wondering how responsibility for the bloodshed might be avoided.

Sellars avoided the emotional sledgehammer at each sharp turn of the dramatic action as he focused on the moral argument. The audience was continuously referred back to the contemporary issues set out in the pre-show discussion through the...