The Flies
Sartre is known most for the development of existentialism; a philosophy he not only projected and helped develop, but also lived by. Having said this, his philosophy in turn becomes synonymous in his literature, especially in his writings during imprisonment, where he completed The Flies, Sartre’s most well known play. Sartre wrote The Flies in keeping with his desire to “put on the stage certain situations which throw light on the main aspects of the condition of man and to have the spectator participate in the free choice which man makes in these situations” (McCall, pg. 34). For Sartre, this was the best feature of the theater: it was a forum for broadcasting his thoughts. Therefore, The Flies is not about the story being told. Indeed, the classic myth is a medium for Sartre’s clearly dark and pessimistic thoughts to be thrown into the faces of the spectators. Sartre’s play is essentially philosophical and essentially French. It is really an inquiry into individual political responsibility in a world where humans are estranged from one another, and where a hero defines himself by his freedom. I can only imagine how hard it would be to stage this kind of production. How does one stage, basically, a collecti
In a play like The Flies, any line cutting or omission of blocking could hurt the production aspect greatly if not done carefully for a couple of reasons. One, Sartre doesn’t put a whole lot of stage directions in the play to begin with, so any notion of blocking deems important. Two, because there is a lack of stage direction given in the text, this becomes a very didactic play. A culprit to Peter Lichtnefels’ awkward direction is that he can’t make dramatic sense of the more didactic lines in the play. These problems add to the faultiness of the production. Another example of an ineffective beginning is during the Tutor’s first speech, he says, “This Argos is a nightmare city. Squeals of terror everywhere, people panic the moment they set eyes on you…” (Sartre, pg. 73). At this point, the lighting on the stage was pretty warm and fairly bright, so I didn’t get the feeling of terror when watching the Tutor and Orestes discussing the present state of Argos. They say they hear squeals of terror everywhere, so maybe there should have been some squealing, crying or yelling of some sort to show the audience the “nightmare city”. “…We are travelers and we have lost our way.” [Dropping their urns, the women take to their heels] (pg. 73).
Some topics in this essay:
Orestes Characterization,
Peter Lichtenfels’,
Flies Sartre’s,
Zeus Orestes,
Peter Lichtnefels’,
,
Tutor Orestes,
pg 73,
orestes arrives,
squeals terror,
lighting technique,
sartre’s play,
found musing,
hurt play,
addresses woman,
carrying urns,
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Approximate Word count = 869
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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