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KADMOS

An Adaptation Of Sophocles Theban Plays

Created and Adapted by Yaël Farber

With extracts from the writings of Mark Danner

KADMOS is an original work, adapted by Yaël Farber from Sophocles' ancient Greek Theban Plays. Using extracts from the writings of internationally renowned journalist Mark Danner to look at the use of foreign policy, torture and the breaking of a country's values and principles - in order to protect those very ideals, these famous texts are transposed to a contemporary reality. The mothers of missing and murdered children are a potent evocation of The Furies in this adaptation, and the haunting testimonies of a single survivor from a massacre (authentic testimony is used) bear witness to the truth behind Foreign Policy and the abuses of power by a leadership determined to maintain its image as fighting for God, Country and Democracy. This powerful new work seeks to examine leadership, accountability and the nature of democracy in a contemporary Super Power.

Commissioned by Sherry Bie

and

The National Theatre School of Canada

This production awaits development and further producing

PRESS

“A mind-blowing 100 minutes”

“The genre is rare, the seating limited, the production exceptional. Don't miss it.”

“Blessed be the minds that merge Sophocles with modern war.”

PAT DONNELLY, GAZETTE CULTURE CRITIC
FEBRUARY 25, 2011

PRODUCTION INFO / THE COMPANY

Running Time 90 minutes

Sophocle's Theban Plays are are powerful articulation of inheritance, ambitions, and accountability of power. Tracking two generations of the line of KADMOS - this work looks to a leader in Oedipus, who - though flawed - has a deep sense of accountability to finding the truth at all costs. His horror when he discovers this truth, speaks of a time when once there were ramifications spiritually, morally, politically - if one discovered oneself to be the source of "plague". The transference of this power to Kreon (an arch-conservative and patriarch) creates the possibility for an electrifying encounter with the defiant daughter of Oedipus. I wanted to create a work that imagines a future in which this conservatism grows beyond democratic ambitions, and into a fascism that defies the principles of democracy - in order to preserve a myth of this very ideal. With the Theban Plays as a consistent base to this work, I rewrote text and used extracts from the writings of internationally renowned journalist Mark Danner, who has written tirelessly about America's use of torture and the breaking of his country's values and principles - in order to protect those very ideals. Using the concept of the mothers of missing and murdered children - I have attempted to evoke The Furies, - through the haunting testimonies of a single survivor from a massacre (here real testimony from the massacre at El Mozote - courtesy of Mark Danner) in order to bear witness to the truth of foreign policy that has enables some of the worst crimes against humanity. KADMOS reaches to articulate a longing for a time when leadership was brought down by the scandal of its own stains, and gazes at leadership that survives today... not on history as truth, but a narrative to be manipulated towards its own means. The recent events in Egypt simultaneously unfolded as we were developing this piece. I believe it is worth mentioning that the final words spoken by Antigone in this work, are from the streets of that very revolution.

Yaël Farber

Montreal, 2011