Genesius Guild presents "Hippolytus" at Lincoln Park -- July 17 through 25.
Saturday, July 17, through Sunday, July 25, 8 p.m.
Lincoln Park, 11th Avenue & 38th Street, Rock Island IL
Between July 17 and 25, Rock Island's classical-theatre company Genesius Guild will wrap up its 2021 summer season with Lincoln Park productions of the rarely staged Greek tragedy Hippolytus, Euripides' seminal work that was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy.
Euripides' tragedy is set in Troezen, a coastal town in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Theseus, the king of Athens, is serving a year's voluntary exile after having murdered a local king and his sons. His illegitimate son is Hippolytus, whose birth is the result of Theseus's rape of the Amazon Hippolyta, and the young man has been trained since childhood by the king of Troezen, Pittheus. At the opening of Hippolytus, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, explains that Hippolytus has sworn chastity and refuses to revere her. Instead, he honors the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. This has led her to initiate a plan of vengeance on Hippolytus, because when Hippolytus went to Athens two years previously, Aphrodite inspired Hippolytus' stepmother Phaedra to fall in love with him.
Hippolytus consequently appears with his followers and shows reverence to a statue of Artemis, a chaste goddess. A servant warns him about slighting Aphrodite, but Hippolytus refuses to listen.
Meanwhile, the chorus, consisting of young married women of Troezen, enters and describes how Theseus's wife Phaedra has not eaten or slept in three days. After an agonizing discussion, Phaedra finally confesses that her love for Hippolytus has made her ill, and while the nurse and the chorus are shocked, Phaedra explains that she must starve herself and die with her honor intact and to save Theseus from shame. However, the nurse quickly retracts her initial response and tells Phaedra that she has a magical charm to cure her - even though, as we learn, the woman has different plans. What follows is a wrenching tragedy of jealousy and brutality, culminating in a moving examination of the love between a father and a son.
Directing Hippolytus is longtime Genesius Guild participant Michael Callahan, whose previous credits for the company include directing 2018's Prometheus Bound and appearing in King Lear, Twelfth Night, and The Frogs. Among other Guild veterans, the title character is portrayed by Philip Tunnicliff (The Merchant of Venice), with Theseus portrayed by Jeremy Mahr (Much Ado About Nothing), Aphrodite by Bella Kuta (The Bacchae), and Phaedra by Sarah Willie (Hamlet). And seven additional local talents compose the Hippolytus ensemble: Catherine Bodenbender, Guy Cabell, Jacob Lund, Liz Sager, Mollie Schmelzer, Anna Schneider, and Melita Tunnicliff.
Genesius Guild's Hippolytus runs at Rock Island's Lincoln Park July 17 through 25 with performances Saturdays and Sundays at 7 p.m., and although the outdoor drama is free, donations are encouraged. For more information, visit Genesius.org.
