The Alcestiad: Or, A Life In the Sun

by Thornton Wilder

In The Alcestaid Thornton Wilder retells for us the ancient legend of Alcestis, Queen of Thessaly, who gave her life for her husband Admetus, beloved of the Sun Apollo, and was brought back from Hell by Hercules. Wilder's Alcestis is a seeker after understanding, to whom "there is only misery, and that is ignorance." Her life as wife, mother, Queen -- like Emily;s in Our Town -- is apparently idyllic happiness is destroyed by death. But neither death or happiness is what it seems to be, and the tragedy id Apollo's "song in motion...an unfolding -- a part of something larger than we can see." It is followed, according to Greek tradition, by a comic 'satyr' a one-act "diversion" in which Apollo, disguised as a kitchen-boy, confounds The Drunken Sisters -- the Fates -- to save the life of Admetus.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

129 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.

For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton...

Reviews

[Hanniii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es ist ein schönes Drama in drei Akten, wobei die ersten beiden catchier waren. Der dritte Akt hatte nur wenig Zusammenhang zur eigentlichen Geschichte. Das Satyrnspiel am Ende war dafür aber eine gute Ergänzung.
Tolle Liebesgeschichte. Der Nachtwächter gibt viele gute Ratschläge, auch fürs echte Leben.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wilder adds Christian themes to an ancient drama.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilder worked on this play on and off for over 20 years. While a version was performed in England in 1955, the reviews were so poor that Wilder pulled it from production...but continued to revise it. This version, based on a German acting edition from 1960, was not published during his lifetime. In many ways, it's easy to see why some critics might not have liked the play. While the set described would be a novel thing to see, much of the dialogue, especially in Act I, is more like prose dialogue than dramatic dialogue--lots of long speeches, not much prosaic language. The play is, in fact, much more like a classical Greek tragedy than what mid-20th century Western theater audiences would have been expecting to see. Perhaps Wilder should have crafted this piece as a short novel. There are moments of pathos--Hercules's rescue of Alcestis from Hell is particularly moving--and comedy. But there is something about this work (perhaps its mythic origins) that fails to impact the emotions of the reader/viewer. The addition of the "satyr play" as a way of shedding light on some of the events in _The Alcestiad_ is also not very satisfactory.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Ted Hughes’ gorgeous translation of Alcestis, I was interested to read Wilder’s adaptation. I’ve enjoyed Wilder’s other plays and was caught off guard by how mediocre I found The Alcestiad.

Hughes’s version is sparse and powerful, playing the full range of human emotion from grief to joy, hatred to love. Wilder’s play, on the other hand, is a bloated, wordy mess that loses much of the power because of the sheer number of plotlines and monologues he piles onto Alcestis’s tale.

At its heart, Euripides’s play is about a woman who sacrifices herself for her husband. Hughes grasped the power of that sacrifice and used it to full advantage. Wilder treats it as a charming subplot, hindering the story’s power.

Interested in reading Alcestis? Go for Hughes and skip Wilder. Not recommended.

[Shoshana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I have seen Wilder's final full-length play and just this year participated in a read-through of it, I felt I needed to read it to really get everything, all the nuances. I did remember a lot more than I thought, especially the first act of Alcestis not wanting to marry the king and instead serve Apollo, as well as parts of the second act. There was a lot I didn't remember about the third act and final moments, and overall on this re-read I paid more attention to how Wilder is using the play to talk about how we live with belief, or not, and whether the gods are apart from us or within us. I've heard others say this before, but for such a heavy play, it's also very funny in parts, especially with Hercules--both his character and others' reactions to him. The more I watch/hear/read this play the more I like it and find it very complex.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilder’s telling of the story of Alcestis, a princess from Greek mythology, is entertaining and intelligent. Alcestis is bethrothed to Admetus since he was the only suitor of hers to successfully yoke a lion and a boar to a chariot, but wishes to become a priestess to Apollo instead. Apollo visits in the form of one of four visiting herdsman, but Alcestis doesn’t know which one he is. Based on what one of them says, however, she elects to marry Admetus. Later Admetus is fated to die, until Apollo tricks the three Fates into allowing someone to die in his place.

It sounds all very serious and as the original story from Euripides is over 2,400 years old, it may be understandable that Wilder’s play isn’t all that popular. There are several moments of levity, however – Apollo bantering with Death, the irascible and foggy-brained Tiresias, and an inebriated Hercules, among others, and you can easily imagine the play being performed on-stage. Wilder touches on themes of life’s meaning, and the difficulty of knowing God (or in this case, the Gods, plural). As in his other works, he is wisely reserved about trying to provide answers to such unanswerable things. He also is attentive to detail, and follows classical form by including a ‘Satyr play’ about the three Fates at the end of the three acts.

Just this quote, on God:
“But if they did exist, these gods, how would they speak to us? In what language would they talk to us? Compared to them, we are diseased and dying and deaf and blind and as busy as clowns. Why, there are some who even say that they love us. Could you understand that? What kind of love is that, Princess, when there is so great a gulf between the lovers? That would be an unhappy love, no doubt about that.”

[Hotspur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happened upon this at a used book sale. I have never heard of its performance being put on anywhere, which is a shame. It is well done, tight dialogue/prose, a clear plot and characters. I suppose I wanted a bit more: poetry, tragedy and pathos, etc.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not well-acquainted with Thornton Wilder's other work or with the myth The Alcestiad is derived from, but I still enjoyed reading it as its own piece of dramatic literature. It is presented and paced as a standard Greek tragedy, but its tone is uniquely gentle.

[Diletta]

Avevo già letto la tragedia di Alcesti nella sua versione "originale", l'avevo apprezzato sì, ma a dfferenza di altre tregedie greche che amo tantissimo, non l'avevo condivisa fino in fondo. Qui ovviamente benché si tratti della tragedia di Alcesti si voglie ovviamente il mutamento dei tempi, la differenza del tempo in cui è stata composta. Ma, e non me ne voglia Euripide a cui voglio un gran bene, apprezzo maggiormente questa versione, cosciente del fatto che sia ovviamente diversa. Qui si coglia le sfumature dei comportamenti, l'ironia (moderna), le riflessioni su quello che c'è tra piano umano e piano divino. È un dialogo continuo tra personaggi, tra personaggi e pubblico, tra interiorità e mondo reale.

[Jack]

Three Plays by Thornton Wilder by Thornton Wilder (1961)

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thornton Wilder delivered Christian themes in an adapted play from Pre Christian times. Good stuff.