Interdisciplinary project brings lesser-known Greek play to life

Between three humanities departments, the tragic story of a woman who gave her life for her husband is taking center stage — ancient Greek dramatist Euripides’ story of Alcestis.

Leading up to April 8, when the stage reading will take place in Person Hall, Kari Lindquist, a Department of Music graduate teaching assistant, the Department of Classics and the Parr Center for Ethics are putting on this lesser-known Greek tale with the hopes of bringing together the community and confronting topics like injustice and loss.

The story follows Greek King Admetus as he grapples with the sacrifice his wife, Alcestis, made for him. In a deal struck with Admetus, the Greek god Apollo allowed any one person to take Admetus' place in death, as long as they agreed — the only person who did so was Alcestis.

“His parents aren't willing to do it, even though they're kind of advanced in age,” Al Duncan, an assistant professor of classics and collaborator on the production, said. “And then while he's out asking, and the play is ambiguous on this point, his wife volunteers and says, 'I will die on your behalf.'”

The play attempts to answer questions of genderroles, differences in age, social debt and selfishness. Duncan said it is, overall, an ethically soaked text . 

He said the narrative is not only one of substitution, but also how lives are assigned value. 

“I think it's always a very healthy attitude to accept, or to take, to see 'What if I were to trade spaces with somebody, walk a mile in their shoes,'” he said. “How would that force me to rethink some of the assumptions about people's value and relative value that we just make subconsciously every day?”

Lindquist, the project leader of the program, said she was looking forward to discussing "Alcestis" with the community. They will be hosting various public events, such as readings and lectures, both on and off campus prior to the April 8 stage reading.

“We put out a general call for people who wanted to participate,” Lindquist said. “We have a cast of actors with all sorts of different experiences.” 

The cast, not yet released, has a range of actors and actresses anywhere from UNC students to school teachers to retired members of the community.

Lindquist said she wants "Alcestis" to be an opportunity for the general public to bond. The play will also foster a space for people with different perspectives to interact with each other, according to their website.

“Sometimes I feel like the campus community is kind of isolated from the surrounding area, so it's like, this is an opportunity to have long-term meaningful connection,” Lindquist said.

Michael Vazquez, a teaching assistant professor in philosophy and a collaborator on the project, said he wants to create space to answer philosophical questions through an intergenerational dialogue.

Vazquez said he sees "Alcestis" as a public humanities project and considers it to be their conception of who in the community has the opportunity to read literature and think through big philosophical questions or themes. He said he was excited about this project because of its interdisciplinary collaboration across music, classics studies and philosophy.

Bringing together so many different people from different backgrounds and ages is a vehicle for the project, and getting to hear the different perspectives of life, loss, injustice and difficulty all play into a Greek tragedy like "Alcestis," Vazquez said.

In the events leading up to the performance, all of which are sprinkled over the Chapel Hill area, Vazquez said that he hopes to cultivate conversations between members of the community through the context of the story.

“They're just the kinds of questions we're still asking today,” Vazquez said. “There’s actually something very familiar about it. It's not just, 'Oh, look at that strange, ancient world.'”

The stage reading will take place on April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Person Hall and is free and open to the public. Information on the reading and prior events can be found on the project's website.

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