The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Red Bull Theater’s Sardanapalus & Global Watch Party Review

By Crystal Veronie, PhD

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to watch Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus dramatically read by a talented cast at the Red Bull Theater under the direction of Ray Golden and in collaboration with Omar Miranda and Jesse Berger. I prepared for this screening by reading the play and background information provided by Peter Cochran, but I was especially impressed with specific scenes that captured Byron’s sarcastic wit! When the actor for Sardanapalus appears with the flower crown and gives his signet ring to his brother-in-law Salamenes, the sarcasm of this moment cuts both ways. While Sardanapalus appears vain and dismissive of the immediacy of danger, it also shows the differences between the core values of Sardanapalus and Salamenes—the former defined by love and pleasure-seeking behaviors and the latter by tradition, duty, and loyalty.

Over the course of the play, this friction between the core values of the two men becomes ever more obvious, and the ways that Sardanapalus’s commitment to love and pleasure undermine Salamenes’s efforts to protect the empire and his brother-in-law’s sovereignty. The staging of this play feels very salient in the face of our political moment and current fears of rebellion. Watching this play staged really enhanced my experience of this work of literature! I want to express my sincere appreciation to all of the cast, Omar Miranda, Ray Golden, and Jesse Berger, as well as the K-SAA that made this screening possible.