WORKING NOTES by RTM updated 18 July 2014 —  (See mythmatters post for 18JUL2014 for an incipient essay.)

RE: the “many interpretations of the O[restes] myth in recent decades.” (Tilg in Moog-Grünewald RMM)

Starting with O’Neill’s headwound to Orin, other playwrights injure their protagonist. Mee and Castellucci refer to Orestes on a sickbed at Ronconi, “a crucial ingredient in the idea of O[restes] the avenger that dominates drama today.” (Tilg) “However, exceptions, e.g. Peter Stein’s optimistic staging of the Oresteia in Berlin (1980; 4:31-35) or Tug Yourgrau’s South African version, The Song of Jacob Zulu (1993, a success on Broadway), in which the Christ-like life and death of the O[restes] figure brings about an end to violence,[1] should not be forgotten.” (Tilg, 476-77)

Stefan Tilg thus refers to The Song of Jacob Zulu as a “South African version” of the Oresteia and to Jacob Zulu as “the Orestes figure” in the play.

… Does Tug Yourgrau’s South African “version”, The Song of Jacob Zulu (1993)” overtly mention Orestes? It has a “Christ-like figure who effects an end to violence.” [But is it OVERTLY Orestes?] Overt: yes. Deserved: meh.

http://mythmatters.blogspot.com/2014/07/yourgraus-song-of-jacob-zulu-measured.html

How does this categorization play into the classification of Zulu as oresteia?

Has he read it? Does the play end with cessation of violence?[2] Is it fairly a “version” of the Oresteia? Does the author himself claim The Song to have been an oresteia at all?

Yourgrau’s own introduction[3] makes reference to Aeschylus and to Sophocles, but not specifically to Orestes.

p. viii: “Through my research, there emerged the outline of a story of great power, a tragedy like that of the Bible or the Greeks. It was the story of an innocent, bright boy whom the fates — in this case, the apartheid system — ground up and destroyed.”

again p. viii: “I decided to tell the story of a young man such as Andrew [Zondo, the actual bomber in the shopping mall bombing] in the form of a Greek drama, but with an African twist: Aeschylus set in Zululand. The chorus would sing traditional South African songs and would play many roles: first, that of the young man’s church congregation; then his high-school mates; next, the ANC guerillas with whom he trains; and finally, the audience in the courtroom at his trial. The songs would comment on the protagonist and the action.”

p. x: “I went back to the great Greek dramas, especially Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle, for inspiration and guidance. I read Genesis, in particular the saga of Jacob, very closely.”

p. xi: “Eric Simonson [at Steppenwolf’s workshops] suggested to me that I introduce a character modeled after the blind prophet Tiresias in Oedipus Rex, and this eventually became Itshe.”

What reviews of the “Broadway success” can be discovered? [In fact, its “success” must be qualified.]

Piecing together the play’s Broadway history is easy in Bruce Weber’s column in the New York Times. It ran for seven weeks. A union issue actually closed it prematurely. That could have been chalked up to the fact that the play’s author was a first-timer negotiating his contract as part of an import from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 1993. It was nominated for six Tonys, including best play. It won none. The play received “mixed reviews, but attendance figures were quite respectable, hovering around 75 percent throughout the run.”[4]

Weber never mentions the connection to Aeschylus’s Oresteia. He does discuss the character of Itsche, particularly his soliloquy about the horrors of South African prison. The actor who played Itsche on Broadway had first-hand experience in such prisons commonplace to blacks, though Tug Yourgrau as a white South-African would never have been able to experience it.

May Tilg only have read Wetmore and never read the Yourgrau play itself?

Half of Kevin Wetmore's chapter "Orestes in South Africa" treats Yourgrau's play. [K.J. Wetmore, Jr., The Athenian Sun in an African Sky (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 153-66.] — "The use of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is what makes Jacob Zulu arguably the closest transculturation of the actual Greek tragic form."

This is what I found in database searches as far as contemporary theatre reviews go (NYT, Newsweek, New Leader).

NYT critic Jon Pareles observes that “in workshops in Chicago, Ladysmith became something of a Greek chorus, commenting on the action and embodying everyone from a church congregation to a band of townshiop militants.”[5] Otherwise, there is no mention of Greekness, of Orestes, of oresteia. The discussion is about political commentary in the play.

Stefan Kanfer, “The Trivial, the Traumatic, the Truly Bad,” New Leader 76.5(5 April 1993). “That chorus--the nine members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo--makes Jacob Zulu a theatrical event of considerable stature. Without their unusual sonorities, Yourgrau's work would essentially be a courtroom transcript, punctuated by flashbacks and illuminated by the glowing performances of Freeman and Mokae. Thanks to Ladysmith, The Song of Jacoh Zulu really is a song, an extension of Africa's oral tradition, chanted night after night with palpable force and authenticity. Indeed, I wish it were not quite so authentic. During the writing of Jacob one of Ladysmith's members, Headman Shabalala, was murdered by a white man following an argument in Durban. The killer was convicted but given a suspended sentence. The song is not over; not yet.”

Jack Kroll, “The Arts: Theatre” Newsweek 121.14 (5 April 1993). “[Ladysmith Black Mambazo] becomes the ultimate Greek chorus, reflecting the action in eloquent, elegiac songs.”

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[1] Kevin J. Wetmore, The Athenian Sun in an African Sky: modern African adaptations of classical Greek tragedy (2002 ) 153-66.

[2] Yourgrau’s intro, written June 1993 (in the weeks after the play closed on Broadway): “As I write this, news reports announce the setting of a date in early 1994 for free, democratic elections in South Africa. I wish deeply that this comes to pass — and with a minimal loss of life. Nine thousand people have died in political fighting in the three years since Nelson Mandela was freed. A new day may be dawning in South Africa, but the birth is traumatic, and it is still very possible that the labor pangs will kill the child. History, I am afraid, will claim many more victims before a free South Africa comes into being.” p. xii.

[3] Tug Yourgrau, The Song of Jacob Zulu (New York: Arcade 1993), viii – x.

[4] Bruce Weber, “Case of the Vanished Audience,” NYT 7May1993, C4. Weber attributes the play’s early closure not to artistic problems but to economic factors: discounted tickets to less affluent clientele undermined word-of-mouth publicity. Cf. B. Weber, “Author of Jacob Zulu faces unpleasant choice,” NYT 19 Feb 1993, C2.

[5] Jon Pareles, “Ladysmith Raises its Voice on Broadway,” NYT 21 Mar 1993, H8.