1. The Play’s the Thing:
When in Rome...
Books
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Folger Shakespeare Library edition, Washington Square Press, ISBN: 0743482743
William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Signet Classic edition, ISBN: 0451528433
Background reading (not required): The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, by Plutarch, any edition or translation. See: Coriolanus, Caesar, Antony, and Marcus Brutus.
Program Description
Agon: Antagonistic, protagonist, agony, antagonist, et al.
From the Greek: to struggle, contest, conflict.
Plays tell many of our greatest stories; force us to witness and confront the worst and very best in mankind; provoke us to “know thyself;” ask uncomfortable and enduring questions.
What is seductive about political power? What makes a leader great? When is the word more powerful than the sword? Can the thoughtful and sincere survive in a “realpolitik” world? Why is
the traitor one of the most contemptible criminals?
William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Coriolanus, probe deeply into these questions. During our week together, we will read and discuss these two powerful “Roman dramas,” briefly examine Shakespeare’s source for the plays, Plutarch’s The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, attend a performance at the Stratford Festival and a performance of the Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto (plays TBA). Gary hopes you will join him
for a lively and thoughtful week wrestling with that powerfully
provocative thing, the play.
Soulpepper
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill
Thursday, July 24
$55 Cdn or $53 U.S.
UNITED KINGDOM 1982
Caryl Churchill is the most important female playwright of the British stage. Top Girls, considered by many to be Churchill’s defining achievement, is both delightful comedy peppered with some of history’s most compelling women, and scorching political examination of the role of women in contemporary society.
Directed by Alisa Palmer, Featuring: Diana Donnelly, Megan Follows, Kelli Fox, Ann Marie MacDonald, Cara Pifko, Liisa Repo Martell, Robyn Stevan
Stratford
Pub lunch and King Lear matinee
$135 Cdn or $120 U.S.
Discussion Leader
Gary Schoepfel spent ten years working as a stage actor, director, and acting instructor. He is currently a vice president with the Great Books Foundation and a faculty member at Harrison Middleton University, a Great Books distance learning institution. He relishes the opportunity to discuss the underbelly of Roman politics with a thoughtful group, a group Caesar might have found dangerous.
