REVIEW: Oedipus The King - Pax Amicus Theatre - Nov. 8, 2009

- Oedipus the King -

Pax Amicus Theatre, Budd Lake, NJ - Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 - 2PM

The King of Funny Faces' Review

Cross-posted here.

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"This is the best production of Oedipus that has ever been done."

Stan Barber didn't mind saying so, after his own production today of Oedipus the King at Pax Amicus Castle Theatre in Budd Lake, New Jersey. He has been leading the Theatre Group there for 39 seasons. Then he said, "I'm sorry" with a smirk and a shrug of his shoulder like Mohammed Ali. In other words, Stan Barber is prepared to defend that claim if anyone out there - anyone in the whole world - were to try to take him to task for saying it.

I haven't seen any other performances of Oedipus the King, so I can't verify the autheniticity of his claim for sure, but it is certainly the best one I have ever seen. It definitely sets a very high standard that any company that tries to perform it again in my presence is going to have to contend with.

The performance was dark and scary and well done, like a good tragedy should. I remember thinking that the way the actors moved and spoke were remarkable long before I heard Mr. Barber make his claim. The characters literally jumped out at the audience. The closing of the first Act was positively haunting. The chorus seemed to literally float out over the audience and evaporate when the lights went dark.

The dialogue in the play, from a 1984 translation from the Ancient Greek by Don Taylor XIII, was equally impressive.

"Scorns! Hurricanes! Let them come!"

          "It must go on! I must know the truth!"

and, in a softer voice that is even more chilling:

"Why should I take pilgimages...to any holy place..if the gods' warnings provoke laughter, and no thought of what comes after?"

In the beginning of the play,  Oedipus (Jordan Feltner), a member of the royal family of neighboring Corinth who married the Queen of Thebes after her husband was murdered (ostensibly by bandits and thieves) is determined to find out who killed the previous king. It remains a mystery how Oedipus has been unaware of the circumstances of his predecessors' murder for so long, but what is known is that he is determined to find out the truth. He is prepared to grant mercy on the perpetrator if he shows himself, but none if he tries to hide. A prophet accuses him of the murder in an early scene and then the madness begins. Oedipus' uncle/brother-in-law Creon (Daniel Kisala) was as wise as a character can get. He defended himself admirably against the King's unreasonable accusations. He is the true hero of the play, and the second-most highly developed character. Jocasta (Cynthia Enfield) is listed second on the playbill, but her character is not as highly developed as Creon.

Jocasta is not qa wicked queen who seduced her own son. All the characters in the play are sympathetic. Oedipus is truly not an evil man, even though he is a mass murderer. He is a well-meaning king and father who saved the citizens of Thebes  (his "children") by solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. But, like many great men, he was driven insane by circumstances completely beyond his control. Jocasta's declaration that her Son/Husband is a doomed man when she sends him into exile is not a personal attack, or an insult intended to hurt the man. It is just a fact: something that needs to be said. And that is what makes it genuinely more horrifying than any of the torture-porn movies that are produced in the cinema these days.

Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a tragedy in the truest sense. The story of the doomed king of Thebes, who was prophesised to kill his own father and then fall in love with and marry his mother. It has been a classic since it came out 2420 years ago. It inspired an entire psychoanalytic theory. If it has stayed alive for 2420 years, it will probably influences the world forever. It is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, ancient history and tragedy.

There is still three more performances in Budd Lake. Catch them if you can.

 Monday, November 16 - 10 pm

I am very pleased that this production was a success at Pax Amicus, which has been the local Community Theatre in my area since before I was born. I have a picture of me outside the Castle Theater (which anyone can see from the road if they look across Budd Lake from Route 46) greeting an actor in an animal costume in the late 1970's. I have been looking for it...when I find it, I will be sure to update this blog again and post at least a link to it.

Someday, I would be very happy to be able to audition (and get a part) at this theatre.  You know I will post about that, too. I have been critical of Pax Amicus in the past. I feel bad now. I feel like I was close-minded and boneheaded, but I know now that was not a sensible way to proceed.

Long live Pax Amicus Castle Theatre! Long Live Stan Barber! Long Live Jordan Feltner, Cynthia Enfield and Daniel Kisala! Long live everyone involved with this production!

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

The King of Funny Faces with the Royal Family of Thebes

From bottom left: Creon, Jocasta, The K.o.F.F. and Oedipus the King

Erik Got A Ruling from The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel

June 1, 2009

Erik B. Anderson
Hackettstown, NJ 07840

Mary Huot
c/o Huoghton Mifflin Company
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA 02116

Dear Ms. Huot:

I am doing some research for my autobiography and I need your help.I need to know if the word "ironically" is used incorrectly in the three short articles I am including in this letter.

An article on Wikipedia says:

The American Heritage Dictionary’s usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly."

This is my argument:

1. The fact that James Titus was wrongly convicted of rape and murder, served 19 years in prison and lived in Hackettstown for almost 50 years is a "surprising disappointment."

2. The fact that the scene of the crime burned down on Halloween night, 1899, is another "surprising coincidence." [The HackettstownHistory.com article "Fall Into Halloween" is no longer online].

and

3. The fact that Marilyn Manson torched his drummer's drum kit on the night before the last show of the tour in the winter of 1995 is...well it's not a coincidence or a surprise knowing what I know about the last night of the tour that ended in December 11, 1995, but it most certainly does not suggest( any particular lessons about human vanity or folly.

So, the word ironically is used incorrectly in each of these documents, and the reasons for these events have not been adequately explained. I believe the real answers to these questions are very important indeed.

Can you confirm if I have used the correct argument to determine that it is incorrect usage already? Is there a formal process to request a "ruling"?

I cannot ask Webster's, because the third definition of irony in Webster's New World College Dictionary: Fourth Edition (page 755) calls it: "a combination of circumstances or a result that that is the opposite of what is or might be expected or considered appropriate [an irony that the firehouse burned]."

I appreciate the fact that you are there. This is very important to me on a personal level. Is there anything more that I can do?

Sincerely,



Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782


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Click on image to read letter.

Erik's Early Childhood

Erik Blaine Anderson
by Mary Wilkin (Grandma)

The first child of Kay and Bruce Anderson, the first grandchild of Marion Anderson and Mary Wilkin, Erik was born prematurely on June 9, 1975 in Morristown Memorial Hospital. The excitement of his birth turned to anxiety as Kay had a convulsion in the hospital and was diagnosed as having toxemia. No one knows what cause this condition but the baby must be delivered immediately. A Caesarian operation was performed and the 5 lb. 4 oz. boy was put in an incubator. He was only 3 weeks early. His mother, however, was kept highly sedated with only her husband being allowed to see her. He was only 3 weeks early. His mother, however, was kept highly sedated with only her husband being allowed to see her. After a couple of days Kay was allowed to see her baby but not to hold him. We later learned that this was because they thought she might have another seizure and drop the child. Her dream of nursing the baby was denied, but the family of 3 eventually returned to their home at Quakerchurch Rd. in Randolph, N.J. with a healthy, thriving son.






Erik was the joy of the family. Round face, big brown eyes and chubby, rosy cheeks make him a delight to look at or hold. He was content in his swing or on the floor on the bright quilt his Aunt Joan (Wilkin) had made for him. Both Grandmas visited often and took frequent pictures of his various stages of development. Baby-sitting was their pleasure.

Erik sat up alone at 8 months, walked alone at 15 months. His first method of walking was his monster stride. He would put both arms straight out in front of him for balance and cross a room. In his high chair he would pick up Cheerios one by one from the tray while waiting for the rest of the meal. When the food arrived, he stuffed his face putting more in his mouth before he had swallowed the first bite. Kay frequently said "Manners don't count until you're 3."





Climbing out of the crib or playpen was a trick he learned from another toddler in Vermont where the family had visited in August '77. Skipping naps began about the same time at 2 years and 2 months. A month later on a long car trip to Cape Cod, Erik could identify most letters on a sign. When one was pointed out to him he would say, "That's an S or that's a C." While the car was stopped at one crossroad he said, "That's S-T-O-P --- Pots." Indoors adults would point to letters in the headlines and he would name each letter. Once his Daddy pointed to a quotation mark. Erik looked at the beginning and end quotes and said, "That's two sixes and two nines."

At home Erik knew how to turn on the radio for Grandma when she couldn't figure it out. He almost locked Grandma out of the car when she was scraping snow off the windows and he was inside pushing buttons. His first set of blocks he threw but he soon learned to build towers and knock them down. When no blocks were available at a time instead of knocking them down. After learning to make choo-choo trains of blocks Erik made choo-choos of any three items he encountered on a table or the floor.

In November 1977, Erik showed his imagination in a restaurant when he took a drinking straw and held it like a pencil and said, "I'm writing." Next he put the straw across his upper lip and said, "It's a mustache." When he held it above his eyes, he claimed, "It's eyebrows." Finally, he tried to twirl it like a baton.





Erik seemed unusually interested in words. When examining a humidifier in Grandma's house he asked what it was for and how it worked. Still puzzled when he peered inside, he asked, "Did my Daddy light the fire in the humidifier?" Once he said, "When I get covered with dirt, I'm dirty. When I spill my milk, I'm milky. When I play in the sandbox, I get sandy. When I roll on the lawn do I get lawny?" Another time he asked his mother if she razed her legs with a razor. As he got older he decided that a boy who plays soccer is a soccerist.

In the months before his brother was born, Erik knew that the baby was in his mother's tummy. He heard the heartbeat on the stethoscope in the doctor's office. When Kay came home with the new baby, Erik was given a boy doll that was anatomically correct. He would hug the doll and say, "I love my brudder."





At age 4, Erik loved to get presents. He was very particular about picking up the wrappings and putting them in the wastebasket. One gift, a Hop-it, frustrated him because he couldn't get the coordination to put both feet on it and walk as on low stilts. A fishing net he enjoyed because he could catch frogs in it. At this age, he was able to converse and relate details of his recent trip to Magic Mountain. His voice was often very loud. He had to be reminded to use his "inside voice" in the house.





For Hallowe'en of 1979 Erik dressed as the HULK and frightened his little brother. In toy stores, Erik was attracted to all games and toys that are related to monsters. At home he loved television but was very considerate about early morning sound. When he had Darlene, a teenager, for a babysitter he was so considerate he didn't wake her until it was too late for his ride to nursery school.

When his parents were due to arrive home from their trip, I suggested we write a Welcome Home sign for them. Instead he cut out a picture for them and wanted to write it himself saying, "Hello Mommy and Dad" not Daddy.

For one trip to say overnight at my house, Erik packed his own bag which he called his Brucecase. He remembered to pack everything except his pajamas. It was about this time that he declared that he did not want to be kissed. Grandma Anderson said she was going to kiss him anyway. Grandma Wilkin started blowing kisses to him.

Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College - VIDEOS

New Century Poetics: A Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College of New Jersey.
October 19 & 20, 2009.

Featuring Poet Mark Doty, winner of the National Book Award.

http://www.centenarycollege.edu/cms/en/gates-ferry-lectures/

It was a great time. I especially enjoyed sitting at the "grown-up table" with Basil King, Michael Heller, Burt Kimmelman, Mark Weiss, Paul Sohar and Mark Lamoreux. I regret that the memory in my camera ran out before Paul Sohar read his poem, which was the best of the night.

I'm sorry that I couldn't keep myself from breathing at inconvenient times during the reading and that my hands were very shaky. I'm not a professional videographer.

If you enjoyed these videos, please let me know:



Basil King is a painter/poet, born in England before World War II and living in Brooklyn since 1968. He attended Black Mountain College as a teenager and completed apprenticeship as an abstract expressionist in San Francisco and New York. For the past three decades he has taken his art “from the abstract to the figure, from the figure to the abstract.” His books include Mirage: a poem in 22 sections, Warp Spasm, Identity, 77 Beasts/Basil King’s Beastiary, Talisman#36/37, In the Field Where Daffodils Grow, Short Stories.

More...




Burt Kimmelman has published five collections of poetry – Musaics, First Lif, The Pond at Cape May Point, Somehow, and There Are Word; his volume of poems titled As If Free is forthcoming in 2009. For over a decade he was Senior Editor of Poetry New York: A Journal of Poetry and Translation. He is a professor of English at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the author of two book-length literary studies: The "Winter Mind": William Bronk and American Letters and The Poetics of Authorship in the Later Middle Ages: The Emergence of the Modern Literary Persona, as well as scores of essays on medieval, modern, and contemporary poetry.

More...




Jared Harel's poems have been published or are forthcoming in such literary journals as the New York Quarterly, California Quarterly, Barrow Street, Notre Dame Review, The Portland Review, and Rattle. He was recently awarded First Runner-up in the 2009 BOA Editions “A. Poulin Jr. Book Prize.” A graduate of Cornell’s MFA program, he currently lives in Astoria, Queens and teaches creative writing and composition at Centenary College.

More...



Mark Weiss has published six books of poetry, most recently As Landscape. He edited, with Harry Polkinhorn, the bilingual Anthology Across the Line: The Poetry of Baja California. His translations include Stet: Selected Poems of José Kozer; The San Antonio Notebook, by Javier Manríquez; and Gaspar Orozco's Notes from the Land of Z. The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry is due from UC Press November 1st. He lives at the edge of Manhattan's only forest.

More...



BJ Ward's books include Gravediggers Birthday and Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands, both published by North Atlantic Books. His work has been featured on National Public Radio, New Jersey Network, and the web site, Poetry Daily, as well as in publications such as Poetry, TriQuarterly, and The Literary Review. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He teaches at Warren County Community College.

Poem Name: Thanksgiving

More: http://www.bjward.net/



Michael Heller has published eight volumes of poetry, most recently Eschaton. His critical work includes a collection of essays on George Oppen and a mixed-genre meditation on the work of the painter Max Beckmann. His poetry and criticism have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. His many honors include the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Prize of the Poetry Society of America, a New York Foundation on the Arts Fellowship and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fund for Poetry.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Heller_(poet)

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I have more videos, of Carlos Hernandez Pena and a few others that I haven't uploaded yet. If and when I get permission from these poets, I will upload their videos.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782

Erik Hung Out With Tom Hayden

In the Fall of 2003, Tom Hayden spoke at West Chester University as part of a book tour. His autobiography, Rebel, was being reissued. He spoke about a lot of things. Being there with Martin Luther King, Jr., organizing a number of Demonstrations in Chicago in 1968, starting the Peace Corps, how he was supporting Howard Dean for President. After his speech was over, I introduced myself, saying I was the President of the College Democrats and here are my friends. He was so relieved. It was not a big crowd that night, and he didn't want to go back to his hotel, so we hung out in Asplundh Hall for about two hours.



He talked about how he liked the show 24, and where he was on 9/11 (in a hospital bed recovering from heart surgery). I told him I actually owned the book he wrote about Zapatistas and I was dumbstruck because I didn't even know he was the author. Then, much like I did when I talked to Ann Rule, I could feel my heart drop to the floor with a thud when I told him I didn't even read it, that it was at the bottom of a box somewhere in my storage shed. He comforted me, though. He said, "It's okay. That's where books are supposed to go!" I was taken aback, but I was still ashamed. I showed him a trick with a 20 dollar bill that he had never shown anybody. I pretty much shocked the room when I made the 20 dollar bill look like an airplane.

Tom Hayden was just fun to hang out with. He was a lot different than William F. Buckley, Jr., who was a total jerk to me in that same building seven years before. I wish Tom Hayden could have had as big an audience as Buckley did. What's funny is: I don't remember talking about the protest I organized there with Tom. Maybe I was too scared. It was a dark period in my life. I'll never make that mistake again.

I hope I can see him again someday. He's still very active today. Check out his own biography.

Erik Met Kofi Awoonor - Poet, UN Ambassador

Formerly known as George Awoonor-Williams, Prof. Kofi Awoonor is one of the most celebrated Ghanaian and African writers. A poet, novelist and critic, Awoonor was born in 1935 and educated at the University of Ghana, the University of London, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he bagged a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature.

Former Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at SUNY Stony Brook, and Head, Department of English and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Cape Coast, South Africa, he has served as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil and Cuba and Ghana's representative at the United Nations. He was awarded the National Book Council Award for poetry in 1979.

MORE: Wikipedia

MORE: "What, then, is the way forward?"

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