Asteriae
The asteriae, or star-nymphs, comprised two groups of sisters: the Pleiades and Hyades. None of them started out as stars. The Pleiades, daughters of the titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione, were originally mountain nymphs until they caught the attention of the hunter Orion. Zeus rescued the seven sisters from his unwelcome advances by placing them in the sky – although Orion, as a constellation, still eternally chases them. The Hyades, daughters of Atlas and either Pleione or Aethra, also dwelled on earth until the death of their brother Hyas. So intense was their grief that Zeus pitied them and placed them and Hyas in the sky as stars.
Of her play about the Asteriae, Bridgette Dutta Portman writes: “The star nymph that I find most interesting is Merope, youngest of the seven Pleiades and the only one of them to marry a mortal man: King Sisyphus of Corinth. Yes, that Sisyphus. Infamously clever, Sisyphus is best known for his monotonous punishment in the underworld; less well-known is what he did to deserve it. Apart from being, generally speaking, an all-around asshole, Sisyphus cheated Death not once but twice. It begs the question of what could have attracted her to someone like him. Why did she choose this wicked mortal man when she might have had affairs with gods, as her sisters did?
My play, King Sisyphus, is set during Sisyphus’s first attempt to trick Death. Sisyphus is determined to put Death in chains and trap him in his dungeon, but he will need the help of his wife. Merope, however, is an eternal star; she has no real understanding of what death means. Moreover, she is reluctant to risk the wrath of the gods by helping Sisyphus. When time runs out and Death (Thanatos) arrives, her love for her husband is put to the test.”
ASTERIAE or KING SISYPHUS by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Directed by Valerie Fachman
Stage Reading on November 5, 2014
Xanadu Bruggers (Merope)
J Jha (Stage Directions)
Rich Wenzel (Sisyphus)
Steffanos X (Thanatos)
Bridgette Dutta Portman is returning for a third year with the SF Olympians Festival. She previously wrote “Prince of the City,” a one-act about the son of Hector of Troy, and “Caenis and Poseidon,” a one-act that she subsequently developed into a full-length play; the latter had a staged reading through the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco in 2013 and was a finalist for Pride Films and Plays’ 2013 Women’s Work contest. Her short plays have been produced in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as across the country and overseas. She is a board member of the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco and a member of the Pear Avenue Theatre Playwrights’ Guild and the City Light Source playwrights’ group. Her day job is a political science lecturer at Santa Clara University.
The image of the Asteriae was created by Cody A. Rishell. You can see more of his work at here and here.