The Argo
In Greek mythology, Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to retrieve the Golden Fleece. She was named after her builder, the shipwright Argus. Argo and her crew was specially protected by the goddess Hera. According to a variety of sources, Argo was said to have been planned or constructed with the help of Athena, who contributed for the prow a magical piece of timber from the sacred forest of Dodona, which could speak and render prophecies. After the successful journey, Argo was consecrated to Poseidon in the Isthmus of Corinth, where she remained until Jason returned to her, at which point a beam fell from her hull, killing Jason. She was then translated into the sky and turned into the constellation of Argo Navis.
In this telling, Argo is that old drunk lady at the end of the bar, who observes as characters suspiciously similar to Chiron the centaur, Jason, Medea and Atalanta play out a story of longing, separation, and child custody in contemporary (and land-locked) Denver, Colorado. Variously watching and participating in the passion play before her, Argo reminds us of the Hero’s Journey and all it entails: whether in mythology, fiction or everyday life.
ARGO by Jeremy Cole
Directed by Jeremy Cole
Staged Reading on November 14, 2015
Jeremy Cole has dabbled in all areas of theater, from running props to writing plays. His adaptation of James Joyce’s The Dead ran for seven seasons in Denver, and his first play for the SF Olympians Festival, Too Near the Sun appears in the anthology Heavenly Bodies: 10 Plays from the 2011 San Francisco Olympians Festival. His agit-prop pro-choice monologue A Cry in Ramah was published in the Clockhouse Review. He is currently working with the New Genres artist James Tantum on a book of captured memories. Jeremy is also the Production Manager for the festival for the fourth year running, because - he says - he enjoys instilling fear in defenseless authors.