Brief 6 – Due by 7 Feb at 10:00am UK time
Writers of 28PL, I heard your words as I was going forth to salute the god Cadmus with my prayers…It is time to write a Greek tragedy!
A few guidelines… (not rules! Rules will come at a later brief!)
- You only get 3 actors and a bunch of chorus members – however, remember you have masks, so 3 actors can play more than 3 characters if you write wisely.
- The chorus sings and dances. Make sure you don’t forget the songs and the dances – this is what this brief is really about. The other characters should mostly speak in some iambic meter – writers’ choice as to which one.
- You have the three unities – unity of time, space and action – i.e all set in one space, over no more than 24 hours and with only one major plot line.
- And you can go all Aristotelian about what makes a tragic character – you know… a relatable person of high nobility suffering from hamartia (a tragic flaw, such as hubris) which leads to peripeteia (the reversal of fortune and a downfall), which creates catharsis (pity and fear) in the audience after they get punished far more severely than they probably deserve.
- And of course, once you set everything up and have no more way of getting out of the mess you find yourself in – you can always call in the good ol’ Deus ex Machina to save the day!
Of course, the trick is to make it a modern play, so one must ask, what does nobility mean in 2021? What does modern punishment mean? What kind of masks shall one wear today? Why is there a chorus on stage? And why is it dancing and singing all of a sudden?
Some Greek-speaking writers in da house this year, so do write in yo’ mo’ tongue!