Sol was the Roman god of the Sun, and of Truth. Considering what this god represented, it’s ironic that actually very little light is shed on his origins and history. We know he existed, in one form or another, throughout the long history of the Roman Empire before Christianity took over. However, historians debate whether the name “Sol” consistently referred to the same entity; some claim that the “Sol Indiges” and the later “Sol Invictus” are two separate gods. What we do know is that the Greek gods Apollo and Helios were a huge inspiration on Sol’s development. There is also evidence that by the 3rd Century AD, Syrian mythology’s solar deity was mixed together with his character. Although there were many impressive temples built to worship Sol over the centuries, there are no known statues of him. But Sol’s image does survive on numerous Roman coins, complete with his trademark “sun crown” radiating from his head, the influence of which can be seen on the iconic headgear of the Statue of Liberty.
Sol, the god of Light and Truth, now works at the Golden Emu Karaoke Lounge as a K-J. But ghosts, victims from America’s not so distant past, seek out the ancient god for an end to their eternal torment. With the help of three working-class Asian-American women and Gilgamesh, the ancient warrior-king/part-time bartender, Sol tries to regain the strength needed to rejoin the ongoing fight against bigotry and oppression. But is there still a place for a noble sun god in a world that extinguished Hiroshima and Nagasaki in single bursts of heat and light?
SOL by Christian Simonsen and Lisa Kee-Hamasaki
Directed by Sophia Mia Dipaola
Staged Reading on October 18, 2018 at the EXIT Theatre
Amy Cook (Helen/Iraq Soldier/Yamiko)
Pam Drummer-Williams (Susie/World War II Soldier/Mitzi)
Lorenz Angelo Gonzales (Gilgamesh)
Kelly Rinehart (Kathy/Vietnam Soldier/Takko)
Karl Wieser (Sol)
Lisa Kee-Hamasaki is excited to be a contributing playwright for the SF Olympians Festival for the first time! When not working as a counselor in the field of mental health, Lisa writes stories about identity, loss, poverty, the working class, fire alarms, ghosts, spoons, bananas and alligators. She has been lucky enough to read her work in the Litquake! Festival and to have had her play “Alligator” published in Transfer magazine while she was a student at SF State.
Christian Simonsen is proud to once again be involved in this unique festival, and is thrilled to be collaborating with fellow playwright Lisa Kee-Hamasaki! Christian’s first Olympians Festival was in 2011, when he wrote “Cassiopeia” and “Io”. Those two plays later received full productions at Eat Street Players in Minneapolis and Off the Cliff Theatre in London, respectively. Other Olympians scripts include “Chronus”, “Scylla”, “Ino Leucothea”, “Pales” and “Fontus”. Christian is also a sketch comedy writer for Killing My Lobster. You can learn more than you ever really needed to know about this playwright at www.christiansimonsen.com.
The image of Sol was created by Cody Rishell.