Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Red Bull Theater’s Sardanapalus & Global Watch Party Review
Review by Rory Edgington, PhD candidate, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Watching party organised by Dr. Francesca Blanch-Serrat
To modern readers, the name 'Byron' has become all but synonymous with the 'exotic'. In contrast to the older generation of Romantics, whom the caustic aristocrat once implored to change their lakes for ocean, Byron himself chose to lead a more peripatetic existence, exploring some of areas of the Mediterranean that were least familiar to the European elite. These terrae incognitae would fire his imagination and form the backdrop for much of his literary output, including his 1821 work Sardanapalus. Now, to mark the bicentennial of the bard’s death, Red Bull Theatre have live-streamed their stripped-back and intimate staging of this now lesser-known work.
Adapted by Byron from the source material written by the first-century Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Sardanapalus takes place in the very depths of biblical antiquity. Over five acts which stick closely to the classical unities of time, place and action, the play recounts the tragic fate of the last king of Assyria, whose peaceable and epicurean approach to statecraft invites the scheming of treacherous priests and false satraps. As the kingdom begins to crumble around him, Sardanapalus (played by Amir Arison) reflects on the nature of peace, power and morality before making one final, grand act of defiance.
The Romantics were notorious for producing closet dramas that were never intended to be staged, so to see one performed in such a way is a rare treat. The cast also take full advantage of the opportunity, making Byron’s ‘chewy’ language (as it was described by cast member Shayvawn Webster) digestible for a broader audience than the text is wont to receive. Arison’s Sardanapalus is jaded as much by the mores of the society he rules as he is by the copious amounts of wine he drinks, while Webster's portrayal of Myrrah imperceptibly evolves from a supine mistress into a companion stoic even unto death.
As for the staging, Red Bull Theatre’s production of Sardanapalus is about as minimalist as it is possible to be; little more than a rehearsed reading with a few select props. And it is all the richer for that, as it lets Byron’s scintillating verse shimmer by its own merits. When Arison delivers Sardanapalus’ dream monologues in Act IV, the nightmarish images are conjured up for the audience without any stagecraft beyond the actor’s voice and the poet’s words.
Though the play itself does indulge in the kind of Orientalist imagery which has long since been problematised, we can see here that Byron’s purpose in choosing a setting distant in both time and space is to create a distancing effect in order to challenge the ‘cant’ of his own society. Sardanapalus is a peace-loving, pleasure-seeking monarch whose fatal flaw is to be stubbornly attached to an ethos that is at odds with the ascetic militarism of his subjects. In his final gesture, the audience is forced to consider whether the ostensibly gratuitous indulgence was in fact of a higher ethical standard than those who seek glory through violence. As the supposedly effete ruler declares in Act I: “Is this Glory? / Then let me live in ignominy ever.” Through works such as Sardanapalus, along with productions such as this one, audiences will continue to see their worlds reflected in supposedly exotic climes whilst also having their comfortable norms challenged and tested. Perhaps a few may even be persuaded to change their lakes for ocean.
