By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Sarah Hickler
Jackie Liebergott Black Box
10/10-10/13, 2013
Love
of the
Nightingale
Dramaturgy guide by Jamie Hovis
Timberlake Wertenbaker was raised in Basque, France. She graduated from Saint John’s College in 1966 and shortly thereafter spent a year in Greece as a young woman to teach language. It is there that she began forming her voice as a writer. Growing up in an area where the local language has been completely obliterated it is understandable that Wertenbaker’s work focuses heavily on language and its political importance. This play then, in particular, can be seen as very personal to Wertenbaker. Wertenbaker has seen firsthand the results of a silenced culture and she has been profoundly moved by this sight. She lists, as her top influences: Eugene O’Neil, Jean-Paul Satre, Howard Brenton and Howard Barker.
“If you silence a people, if a culture loses its language, it loses its tenderness. You lose your countryside, your parent, and because culture is essentially verbal, you lose your history. I have a fear of enforced silence. Silence leads to violence” -Timberlake Wertenbaker
GUIDE TO THE PLAY
PLAYWRIGHT
The Love of the Nightingale was originally commissioned from Wertenbaker by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was performed at The Other Place in Stratford, England in 1989. The production was heralded for its use of theatre as a redemptive tool. Critics called it “powerful theatre and told with devastating vitality,” a “compelling piece of theatre which may indeed rivet you to your seat...a raw piece of myth making for a violated age.”
While an adaptation of Greek myth, The Love of the Nightingale takes place out of time and place. You will notice in our production that while the costume and set may be suggestive of certain historical periods, they are not bound to any setting in particular. You will also notice Wertenbaker’s skillful manipulation of language, the way she transitions between poetic and stylized speech to more modern turns of phrase, and her wordplay. There are countless double entendres and jokes to look out for. It is this whimsical tone that breathes life into the often stylized language and gives the play an undeniably modern feel.
It would be tempting to take this play as a clear-cut parable about women’s role in society through the modern reinterpretation of a classical text. The symbolism here is very convincing: literal speechlessness taking the place of figurative speechlessness. Upon closer reading, however, one comes to realize that there are deeper and broader themes being explored here. To pigeonhole The Love of the Nightingale as only a feminist allegory is a mistake. This play is about the act of silencing in general, what it means to a nightingale’s identity when you cut out its tongue.
PLAY
Above: "The Gordian Knot," 1936. Spanish-American surrealist Frederico Castellon’s interpretation of women in Greek myth.
Left: 'Bacchanalia," 1896. German impressionist Lovis Corinth's interpretation of Greek worshippers of Dionysus performing Bacchic rituals.
PERIOD & PLACE
This play is an adaptation of an ancient Greek myth. Much is known about ancient Greece. It is considered by many to be the foundation of Western civilization. It is the starting point for Western philosophy and politics, giving birth to artists and philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Homer, Sophocles, and countless others. While a great deal of historical information exists about ancient Athens it is worth pointing out that the story of Philomele was a myth for the ancient Greeks, in other words it was ancient 'history' even to them. Therefore in a way the myth takes place out of time and space, making it all the more ripe for adaptation. In the words of Plato, “since we don’t know the truth about the ancients may it not be useful to approximate falsity to truth as closely as possible.” This idea is furthered by Wertenbaker's use of modern language and her evocation of contemporary issues. Throughout the centuries various authors, from Sophocles to Ovid through Shakespeare and all the way to Timberlake Wertenbaker, have made adjustments to the story to suit their dramatic needs. What we have in The Love of the Nightingale is Greek myth appropriated beautifully to speak to the very modern themes of oppression and violence.
In traditional Greek theatre the chorus was of central importance. They served, as is stated in scene five of The Love of the Nightingale, as a sort of voice for the playwright and often the audience. They were expected to sing and dance and would all be dressed identically and in identical masks (Worthen, 17). The role of the chorus in Greek and particularly Sophoclean tragedy was to remark upon rather than influence the events of the play. Wertenbaker, however, has taken certain liberties against the traditional Greek model which are worth noting.
Male Chorus
Out of the two choruses in this play (the female and the male) the male chorus fulfills the more traditional Greek choral role: that of a sort of narrator.
Female Chorus
The female chorus, in contrast with the male, have a less discrete identity. Wertenbaker introduces them in scene four as “[Procne’s] companions, the Female Chorus: Hero, Echo, Iris, June, Helen.” In other words not only are these women a chorus, a body that exists out of the world of the play designed to illustrate the playwright’s thematic intentions, they are also real women who exist in Procne’s life, assumedly assigned by Tereus to keep her company, who all happen to have the names of famous women from Greek literature. Each chorus member serves a specific function to the dialogue that relates to their role as a figure in history as well as their role in the play.
THE CHORUS
Wertenbaker's interpretation of the myth of Philomele is influenced by many works. The following six historical literary texts were her primary influences in writing The Love of the Nightingale.
Book Six of Ovid's Metamorphoses
This is the most complete account of the myth of Philomele and it is worth a read (it’s short and can be found for free online). This Roman poem (written in 8 CE) describes the myth in detail. It is from this account that Wertenbaker takes the majority of her adaptation’s plot. Perhaps the most significant difference between Wertenbaker’s text and Ovid’s version as it places the agency of action squarely on Philomele’s shoulders rather than giving the responsibility to some third party. In Ovid’s version the two sisters then bake Itys into a pie and Procne serves the pie to Tereus at a banquet. Procne informs Tereus of what he has just eaten and Philomele emerges, covered in blood and flings Itys’s severed head to the ground (some of you may notice similarities between this story and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in which Shakespeare actually alludes to Ovid’s account).
Sophocles' Tereus
Tereus is the Greek playwright Sophocles’ account of the myth of Philomele. Only fragments remain of the original manuscript and it is estimated that the original production date was around 430 BCE which would mean it was produced roughly 400 years before Ovid’s account was written. From what scholars have been able to glean the plot of Tereus very closely resembles Ovid’s account as well as including a female chorus which likely influenced Wertenbaker to include one as well.
Hippolytus
Originally produced in 428 BCE, Euripides’ Hippolytus
is Wertenbaker's primary influence for the events of the play-within-the-play in scene five. Perhaps the most famous version of the myth of Hippolytus is found in the neoclassical play Phèdre written by Jean Racine. The play-within-the-play recounts the story of Hippolytus as told in Euripides’ Hippolytus. Wertenbaker seems to have strictly borrowed her entirely from Euripides’ and the play-within-the-play is more or less a condensed version of Euripides’ original play.
The Bacchae
Euripides’ The Bacchae was originally produced posthumously in 405 BCE after Euripides’ death in 406 BCE. It is most likely Wertenbaker's inspiration for her depiction of the festival of the bacchae at the end of the play particularly the scene in which Itys spies upon the women.
SOURCE TEXTS
GODS
Gods
One of the interesting aspects of Wertenbaker’s text is her allusion to gods and goddesses. While it has been established that she used as source material various myths not limited to that of Philomele, an interesting point of note is her transition between Greek and Roman references. The myth of Philomele was originally recounted by Sophocles (a Greek) and later by Ovid (a Roman). In the beginning of Nightingale we seem to be firmly rooted in Athens, Greece, however once the action moves to Thrace the period and setting become more fluid. As the play progresses references to Roman gods begin to be introduced. These allusions further the idea that perhaps time and place are not set in stone here.
Aphrodite
The Greek goddess of “love, beauty, and sexual rapture” (Lindemans). She is at the heart (no pun intended) of countless myths including the myth of Hippolytus as referenced in the play.
Poseidon
The Greek god of the sea, earthquakes and horses. Brother to Hera, Hades and Zeus among other gods, he also features in many Greek myths. Like many other Greek gods he seems particularly prone to rape. One instance includes his rape of Medusa, the result of which being the conception of King Theseus (as featured in Hippolytus).
Mars
The Roman god of war, whose Greek equivalent was Ares (Tereus’ father).
Bacchus
The Roman god of wine, madness and ecstasy. His Greek equivalent was Dionysus who was also the patron god of theatre.
NIGHTINGALES
There exists some variance in the myth of Philomele over which sister turned into which bird. The most complete version that exists is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in that version (as in The Love of the Nightingale) Procne turns into a swallow, Philomele into a nightingale and Tereus into a Hoopoe. Other versions have the two sisters reversed (Procne becoming a Nightingale and Philomele a swallow).
An interesting and perhaps relevant piece of information is that only male nightingales can actually sing, the females do not. The male nightingale will sing at night to attract a mate. Once a mate has been found they stop singing at night and only sing during the day. The relevance here lies in the apparent gender transformation Philomele undergoes. Has she been turned male or has she merely acquired abilities typically only given to males?
This guide was compiled by The Love of the Nightingale dramaturg Jamie Hovis. It is by no means comprehensive, much research was put into this production on the part of the cast, designers and director. If you seek more information feel free to email the dramaturg at james_hovis@emerson.edu. Thank you, we hope you enjoy the production.
