“Jocasta”
Perlman, Sandra (American
playwright, 1944-____), “Jocasta,”
a 45-minute drama, set
in the royal bedroom of Jocasta, Queen of ancient Thebes,
2f,
© 1998, by Sandra
Perlman,
perl@sperlman.com, script/rights
available from Franklin Mills Press, P. O., Box 906, Kent, Ohio 44240,
telephone 330-673-8632, fax 330- 677-2488, http://www.sperlman.com.
• Cited by Sandra Perlman via e-mail, April 3, 1998; Perlman says,
§ Dramatis
Personae Jocasta (f), Queen of Thebes; Iris (f), Jocasta’s servant.
§ Synopsis
“Jocasta’s devoted servant, Iris, witnesses the catharsis when Oedipus
is found but Jocasta is lost. How does one woman cope with the silence
that has brought her son to her marriage bed as husband, the father of
their children, and the murderer of King Laius, his father and her
husband?
§ Comment
“Minimal staging reinforces this retelling of the most admired ancient
Greek tragedy. ‘Jocasta’ illuminates the fatal conclusion of the tragedy
of Oedipus through the eyes of his mother and Iris, her devoted servant.
Reality unravels the mystery of the son who has shared her marriage bed.
The joy of finding the son she had thought dead yeilds to the reality of
having shared a marriage bed with her son, the murderer of his father,
King Laius, and the sire of children with his mother/wife Jocasta.”
• Research could include the full text of Oedipus Trilogy, online
at Project Gutenberg Index, http://www.promo.net/pg,
accessed April 3, 1988. • Also, research could include Sophocles
(ca. 495-406 B.C.), http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/tsoph.htm, accessed April
3, 1998. • “Sandra Perlman has had sixteen of her plays produced
with premieres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland. She received
two Ohio Arts Council fellowships, including one for ‘In Search of the
Red River Dog,’ which was also a finalist at the O’Neill in 1993. Her ten
minute play ‘Covers’ was a 1992 finalist at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
Shorts Festival; it premiered at The Cleveland Play House in 1994. Perlman
has produced, written and hosted for Public Broadcasting Service Channels
45 and 49 and has served as Director of Public Relations for National Public
Radio station WKSU. She co-founded the Playwrights Workshops of the Ohio
Theater Alliance. In 1988 she directed operations for the First International
Women Playwrights Conference in Buffalo, New York [U.S.A.]. A graduate
of American University, she has given workshops on playwriting and taught
at Cleveland State University. In 1995 she was a founding member of the
The Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit. A Philadelphia native, Perlman
has lived in Kent, Ohio, since 1969 with her artist husband Henry Halem.
They have one daughter, Jessica, who is a comedian in Chicago.”—Sandra
Perlman, e-mail, March 30, 1998. • This script has been reworked
into a full-length that is available for production.
§ Themes
ancient Greece, family, father-son relationship, Greece, Greek drama, incest,
legend, marriage, master-servant relationship, mother-son relationship,
murder, Oedipus, patricide, royalty, service, Sophocles (Greek dramatist,
ca. 495-406 B.C.), Thebes.
See also Sandra Perlman's
"And
the Evening and the Morning Were the First Day," a 10-minute comedy
in English, 1m1f
"Before
the War," a 10-minute dance-drama in English, 4f
"Covers,"
a 10-minute drama in English, 2f
"Something
With Fish," a drama in English, 1f
"Uniform
Love," a farce-drama in English, 2m1f
"The
Woman in the White Jogging Suit," a 50-minute drama in English, 2f
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