Firstly, a bit of context. The Love of the Nightingale was written in 1989. It is a re-telling of a Greek tragedy which some say is a feminist re-telling however I believe that imperialism is a stronger theme here. It was written at a time when Margaret Thatcher was in power where there was a lot of privatizing and deregulation. The play has themes of imperialism of the private and public (men controlling women and territories being seized) which are things which would have been influenced by Thatcher's reign. It is about two sisters, Philomele and Procne who are manipulated by Tereus, Procne's husband. Philomele is violated by Tereus and both of them are tricked into thinking that their sister is dead.
It starts off with the male chorus discussing war and how it is all around us so they felt it was appropriate to open the play with this. I thought this was really interesting because it is true- there is always going to be war and everybody is affected by it one way or another. Despite it being written in 1989, they kept in the Greek elements such as the male and female chorus and certain events in the novel were very suited to that time. For example the reason that Tereus marries Procne is because he is talking to King Pandion about how he wants to have a taste of the Athenian culture (he is from Thrace) and that he feels women are a good representative of that. This is where we first see men controlling women because King Pandion offers his daughter, despite the Queen saying that they couldn't just give their daughter away. This is where the play is very much set in Greek times because I don't know whether that would have still happened in the 1980s.
Athens are relieved when Tereus leaves because he is "expensive, rude and rowdy"- you really begin to get a sense of Tereus' obnoxious character here. Philomele wants to go and visit Procne when she moves to Thrace because she misses her but the journey is too dangerous for a young girl to do alone so Tereus is sent to get her. This is ironic because she ends up being in more danger when she is with Tereus. King Pandion doesn't think Philomele should go because, as mentioned before, the journey will be too dangerous. Eventually she is allowed and she begins her journey to Thrace. During the journey, Tereus becomes very attached to Philomele in quite a creepy way. She is only interested in seeing Procne so he tricks her into thinking that Procne is dead so she stops talking about her. After Tereus sees her flirting with the captain, he drags her off and Niobe, an old lady on board, knows exactly what will happen. Tereus completely violates her and when Philomele speaks out against him she is silenced (a strong theme in the play- physically and emtionally). When Procne and Philomele find out that each other are actually still alive, Procne finds out what Tereus did to her when Philomele uses Dolls to re-enact it, which she is horrified at. At the end of the play they turn into birds: Philomele is a nightingale, Procne is a swallow and Tereus is a hoopoe. Philomele became a Nightingale because as she is silenced she now sees the world in a different light so she can "sing" because she has been through that experience however Procne is a swallow so can't sing because she hasn't been through the suffering of being silenced (saying this, she was partly silenced by her surroundings when she moved to Thrace but that wasn't a permanent silencing).
Things that I liked:
- I really really liked the role of the male and female chorus because they were a modern twist on a typical Greek chorus. I like how the male chorus moved the story along for example when they were on the boat to show that time was passing they just said "Days", "Days" and "More Days". I thought that this was really effective because it was so simple yet it didn't distract away from the scene like it would if they kept saying "2 more days passed" or "the next day". In an actual Greek play, we know that the chorus are there to observe but in this play the chorus actually say "we are only here to observe". I think that this was so that we kept in mind that they were being true to their role and even though they wanted to help, they couldn't. Again when they see Tereus kill the captain they "saw nothing". It was also interesting how there was a male and a female chorus because they would've had just one chorus of females but they would've been played by men.
- In Scene Five there is a play within the play which helped King Pandion come to a decision whether he should let Procne go. It was very comedic because it was almost as if they were completely separate from the play. For example, Aphrodite (the goddess of love) enters and she says "But we already know that. It's a tragedy". I thought this portrayed aspects of a Greek play well because often the characters would just say it straight. The Queen says "The playwright always speaks through the chorus" and this made my love for the chorus even bigger because all the comments that the chorus had made (e.g. the affects of war at the beginning and the questions about today at the end) allowed us to see the thoughts of Wertenbaker.
- One of the themes in the play is men controlling women and I feel that this was explained in a nutshell in the line where Philomele says "I never understood obedience" and the Captain says "you're a woman". The man is talking down to the woman, making her inferior, thus showing the control, power and status that men had over women. Especially as Philomele hasn't particularly been unpleasant to the Captain at any point in the play.
- Silence is a massive theme in the play. Philomele is silenced by having her tongue chopped off, Procne is silenced when she doesn't know anyone in Thrace and Niobe is silenced just by the power of Tereus- she can't warn Philomele what will happen because she will face the consequences. Niobe says my favourite quote of the play "Power is something you can't resist". The reason for this is it sums up the whole play. It sums up power in Greek times and it sums up the role of power and money now- no matter how hard you try to avoid it, it will come back around again and you'll just have to "accept it in the end" like Philomele has to.
- The little touches of history- how the King is named and the Queen was unnamed as this was a common practice in Athens in legal proceedings. Easily pleased.
Finally, the use of rape to show the dominance of man was very well crafted. It was an incredible metaphor for wealth, power and corrupt leaders: things that we see as issues in the world today were the basis of Greek tragedies too which was something that I hadn't thought about before so I was enlightened in that sense. The imperialism and oppression expressed in the play was fascinating. If someone had told me to read a play about imperialism, I would not have thought I would have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this play. Don't forget to follow my blog! and on Blog Lovin' x
