Sisyphus & Death
Sisyphus & Death
The Myth of Sisyphus; In ancient Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king who repeatedly angered gods by standing up to them or rebelling against them. His actions prompted Zeus, the god of gods to exile him to the land of the dead wherein his punishment was to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain. When the rock would nearly reach the top, it would fall back of it’s own weight forcing Sisyphus to repeat this futile labor endlessly. The play ‘’Sisyphus and Death’’ is inspired by this Greek mythology. Sisyphus represents the human sufferings in face of death and stuck in routine of the daily life. Robert Merle has done a different take of the Greek myth through his portrayal of the modern man. In this play Sisyphus appears as an innkeeper who when approached by death steals his golden pen to keep him from writing down his name in the ‘’book of the mortals’’.Writing down the names of mortals with this special pen is how the god of death can take away their lives and once without it this action can not be completed thus the world goes into complete chaos and disorder. The play opens at the 29th day of Death’s stay at Sisyphus’s hotel. In hopes of recapturing the golden pen, Ares the god of war also joins him yet is equally unsuccessful. According to the rules of Zeus, the god of gods, Sisyphus, like any other mortal cannot be physically forced to let go of the pen. In the end he is tricked by another mortal and loses the pen and absolute power is restored to the gods.
Crew
Play: Robert Merle
Translated by: Ahmad Shamloo
Director: Naeim Jebelli
Assistant Directors: Mahzad Sharif Ahmadian, Mayha Razavi
Production Director: Pasha Javadi
Composer: Sam Vafaei
Stage Manager and Photographer: Alireza Falahat Pisheh
Graphic designer: Naghmeh Sharifi
Set and lighting design: Naeim Jebelli
Set and lighting design assistant: Mahya Razavi
Cast
Sepideh Arbabi
Mazyar Shahcheraghi
Shahin Rabbani
Naeim Jebelli
Tina Hosseini
