PROMETHEUS BOUND

Greek tragedy (in nowadays time) 

Translated from Ancient Greek: Aleksandar Gatalica

Premiere: 15th July 2006 at BELEF Festival

Direction: Stevan Bodroža
Scenography: Igor Vasiljev
Costume design: Maja Mirković

Branislav Lečić, Đurđija Cvetić, Stefan Kapičić, Aleksandar Đurica, Jelena Ćuruvija, Vladica Milosavljević, Stella Ćetković

Location: sheltered base, somewhere in Asia

After 42 years the production of the Opera and Theatre MADLENIANUM and BELEF Center again returned on the scene Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, the most famous Greek drama and the symbol of drama art in general.  How to play Greek tragedy today is the question to which director Stevan Bodroža has already given an answer. Although the ancient text is not changed for a word, Prometheus is presented in nowadays time, as it turned out that all the preoccupations of Aeschylus’s drama are actually those that we are preoccupied with even at the beginning of the 21st century. Thus: the plot time is nowadays, the plot location is a sheltered military complex somewhere in Asia. Prometheus: the dissident who resists the tortures and the autocratic ruler of the world, Zeus, does not want to say who will bring him down.

As three tragedies and one satiric play were performed at Ancient tragedian poets’ competitions, therefore Prometheus Bound, the only preserved drama, was performed as a part of the Tragic Trilogy.   

According to all known, Prometheus Bound was the first performed, afterwards probably followed by Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus Pyrphoros. It is very interesting to know what was happening in those lost sequences. According to what is known, Prometheus was sent to the Lower World by flood of stones and storms, precisely as he was hinted in the last replica of Prometheus Bound play. 

There are several versions of who unbound Prometheus. According to one of them, Heracles, who counted one of the most famous titan liberation into his heroic deeds, frees Prometheus.  According to the second version, Prometheus was replaced in hades by the centaur Chiron (Aeschylus’s teacher) and thus Prometheus got unbound. There is a third version as well, which probably found its place in two lost Aeschylus’ tragedies.  As he even underground he did not want to tell the name of Zeus’ successor, Hermes brought him back to day light again and tortures continued by the moment Zeus personally appeared in front of Prometheus.

Just like Prometheus hinted, Godfather forgave him his sins and promised him a place in the cosmos for humanity. Only then did Prometheus say that the greatest hero of the Ancient Greece, Achilles, was planning to liberate him. Prometheus was released at the time, but as Zeus's verdict could not be denied, he was ordered to wear a ring with a piece of Caucasian rock that he would still be permanently chained to. It is believed that all rings with precious stones originate from this Prometheus ring.