Even if one is unjustly treated, one should not return injustice…
There are many ways of addressing the condition of our political discourse but it’s hard to think of one as eloquently elegant as Howard Brenton’s new play. Using contemporary writing and accounts, Plato's dialogues for a start, he uses Socrates own reasoning to examine the concepts of justice and duty. No spoilers but, even at the age of 71 the old philosopher was still claiming that he knew nothing and was working every day to understand the nature of self and service. As a historian this is way out of my period and in terms of political thought I started with Hobbes and ended with Marx, but there’s always something to be learned from the birthplace of democracy and critical thinking.
In 399 BC Athens was recovering from a plague and the political aftermath of war with Sparta and the brief rule of the Thirty Tyrants. At such times the last thing anyone needs is a guy asking too many fundamental questions and so Socrates was sent to trial for a variety of crimes including corrupting the youth of Athens, and the crimes of Asebeia, the "desecration and mockery of divine objects", for "irreverence towards the state gods". The movement against him was organised by the young poet, Meletus, about whom history records little. Socrates, according to Plato, seemingly ran rings around him in the court but not well enough to convince the majority of the 501 jurors gathered to bear witness. They decided against the philosopher and whilst the result may not have been 52% to 48%, or 211 to 148… the same forces of confusion, habitual anger and confusion were at play.
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| Sophie Ward, Robert Mountford, Jonathan Hyde & Hannah Morrish - all photography by Steve Gregson |
Brenton’s Socrates is played with good-humoured patience and a questing innocence by Jonathan Hyde who delivers the philosophical complexities with relish, the philosopher’s method of assuming nothing and examining everything. There’s not a word out of place in this script and as director Tom Littler commented after the show, Mr Brenton has written a few of these. Tom and the performers make the absolute most of this dialogue; the arguments are complex but complete and it’s a very satisfying, almost intimate debate focused between the players and the audience at the JST.
Given that this was press night, the equivalent of the Glasgow Empire for a home-counties stand-up comedian, there were laughs aplenty and an uproarious ovation at the end. Like Rafael Nadal wins trophies and Mohammed Salah scores goals, Howard Brenton crafts his work with a light heart and focused complexity with hidden meanings smuggled through his dialogue like a golden thread amassing volume as the narrative progresses.
Robert Mountford plays Euthyphro, a relative of Socrates who meets him outside the court at the play’s start. Euthyphro is not daft but he finds Socrates frustrating not least for his refusal to wear shoes or bathe regularly but mostly because he cannot fathom his relentless questioning. Like most of us, Euthyphro accepts the habitual realities of Greek society and religion and doesn’t want to have to keep thinking about the nature of this reality.
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| Robert Mountford and Hannah Morrish Photography by Steve Gregson |
Euthyphro is like a long-suffering Doctor Who assistant used to help explain the nature of Greek beliefs as well as the challenge Socrates presented to them. He despairs of Socrates’ approach to his trial; the old thinker just doesn’t seem to take the experience seriously at all unlike the more decided minds railed against him.
They say Pericles caught democracy from you in bed.
Sharing this frustration are Socrates’ long-standing mistress Aspasia (Sophie Ward) and his current wife Xanthippe (Hannah Morrish) who both understand their man and the importance of their co-existence – among his other fancies – in keeping the philosopher out of too much trouble. Aspasia is the more experienced and pragmatic of the two who operates very effectively within male-dominated Greek political society with an appeal to men’s hearts and minds… all points in between.
Xanthippe, the mother of his children, is the more theocratic, aligned with the part of her husband that still accepts some form of godly universe albeit one that he doesn’t understand. She has the certainty of belief though just as Aspasia does on secular matters and so both are perfect partners for the man who has everything in terms of questions.
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| Jonathan Hyde and Sophie Ward |
Together they try to direct their man towards a compromise but he’s not taking the jury’s verdict lightly and only makes things worse through his honesty. He ends up on death row and his exchanges with the jailer, played by Robert Mountford multi-tasking superbly as the down to earth everyman who in the modern day may possibly come from Essex and have voted to take back control. If the first half of the play was Socrates against authority, the second is very much the intellectual versus the masses as represented by his affable but irritable goaler who has clearly more than had enough of comfortably well-off philosophical experts.
IThankYou Theatre rating: ***** A pretty much perfect theatrical experience that really allows audience and cast to connect with ancient and modern philosophy at a time when we all need reminding just why society, democracy and culture matters.
Brenton picks his targets with unerring accuracy and hits every one with emphatic skill, entertaining us with every home truth nailed and each complexity left hanging in the air for the penny to gently drop in front of us. It’s another to add to Brenton’s eclectic and lengthy catalogue from Christie in Love (1969), The Romans in Britain (1980), Pravda (with David Hare in 1985) and, more recently, the outstanding Anne Boleyn (2010) with marvellous Miranda Raison as Wife No.2 at Shakespeare's Globe.
The play is part of the JST’s Outsiders Season and I look forward to the next instalment. In the meantime, Cancelling Socrates runs until the 2nd July and will be a very hot ticket so I’d advise you to book as soon as you can!
I’ll leave the last word to Howard: Sartre said that there are three kinds of writers: writers who write for God, writers who write for themselves, and writers who write for other people… I write for other people. The play doesn't reside in heaven, or in a library. As a dramatist, that's your instinct: without other people, the play doesn't exist.
