Universidad de Buenos Aires
Red Bull Theater’s Sardanapalus & Global Watch Party Review
By Daniela Paolini
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now, we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
“Light My Fire”, The Doors
On Monday, October 28th, a group of people from the English Literature Department, the 19th Century Literature and Temporality Research Group, and the Foreign and Comparative Literature Master’s degree gathered at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) to watch a dramatic reading of Sardanapalus by the cast of Red Bull Theater. It was a hectic time at the faculty: not only was it election day –for board of directors and academic council representatives– but also a day of resistance, as this and other faculties were occupied in protest against the extreme budget cuts the right-wing government has imposed on public universities since it took office almost a year ago. In this setting –which also marked the last weeks of the academic year– being able to come together to watch Byron’s play was indeed an act of literary zeal.
As the sun went down, we watched intently the story of a complex, hedonistic character with an aristocratic inclination toward pleasure and a liberal sense of political freedom. During the post-viewing conversation, we reflected upon the way the play deconstructs the stereotypical image of the “She-King” to critique ruling figures associated with warfare. Although we enjoyed the comical elements the actors brought to the stage, we were puzzled by the way the in-person audience laughed heartily at the death of Salemenes, while we felt captivated by the metaphysical themes that emerged towards the end of the tragedy. After the Shakespearean nightmare Sardanapalus recounts, we found that the drama ventures into a darker realm, one in which the main character realizes he cannot sustain his "seek no partners but in pleasure" ideals. For us, the way he embraced his fate in a funeral pyre brought echoes of a famous song by The Doors, both a hymn to desire and a call to action, a plea to “try to set the night on fire”.
As we left the faculty at night, a few public classes continued in the street –another way to light up the night with defiant revelry. We could not help but wonder at Sardanapalus’ ideal of a kingdom as a pleasure dome, a stark contrast to the current resurgence of hate speech and apocalyptic visions of government. In any case, the day's events reminded us that in times of struggle, art can be both a refuge and a clarion call, urging us to keep the flame alive.
