Ajax, by Cláudio da Silva

Ájax, de Cláudio da Silva

Theatre 10€

Thursday 1 October · until 11 Oct

A play based on Sophocles' tragedy 'Ajax', crossing the classical text with reflections on power, disinformation and current threats to democracy.

Brief Introduction Aias or Ajax Telamonius or, simply, Ajax the Great, was considered at the end of the Trojan War to be the second best Greek warrior, just behind Achilles. After the failed attempt to assassinate Ulysses and his army, Ajax falls into disgrace and kills himself. But his half-brother Teucer, despite the dishonour of the suicide and the opposition of Agamemnon and Menelaus, decides to pay him due honours. Who, like Ajax, driven by primary instincts such as the urge for revenge for an injustice, has not been a victim of illusions caused either by their own weaknesses, by the intervention of others or by an event or a particular social context? The age of information or, rather, of the discrediting of information and the fog that so often surrounds its sources is today the ideal context for the development and spread of cruel, unjust, anti-democratic and regressive political speeches, social measures and ideologies. Thus, little by little, the path is being drawn towards the total eclipse of the universal declaration of human rights and human dignity and the rights of all sentient living beings, and thus deeply inhuman acts are allowed, trivialised and disseminated globally. How to face this era, this time, this threat to the complete and abysmal degradation of our civilisational values? We are therefore living under constant attacks on democracy and civilisational evolution. The absence of dialogue, extremism and the deafening noise of our time are gaining strength and carrying out their attack by weakening thought and, consequently, discernment. Restrictions on freedom of expression, disinformation, or its manipulation, and its political and economic exploitation undermine the heart of democracy. What to do in the face of the established social dementia, in the face of the social hysteria manifested in consumerism and unbridled speed? Sophocles' Ajax is a reflection on the limits of power and is also, it seems to us, a response to totalitarian and totalising threats. A response that comes from the depths of our civilisation and from the cradle of democracy. Starting from the text of Ajax, probably Sophocles' oldest tragedy, this show, which premieres at TMJB, makes a theatrical approach to the text and the figure of Sophocles, crossing them with testimonies, narratives and artistic interventions in order to create an original and sharp object. What we propose, given the context we live in, is the presentation of a deeply human theatre that gives us back our gaze. A theatre eye to eye. Prices General - €10 Discounts Group students