University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Red Bull Theater’s Sardanapalus & Global Watch Party Review

By William Edwards

Five of us (three BA students, a PhD student, and a professor) gathered in a classroom one evening to watch Sardanapalus. By the end of Salemenes’ opening speech, we knew we were in for a treat. After it had finished, we all agreed that it had worked well as a performance. One of the BA students found Byron’s dramatic verse easier to understand than Shakespeare’s – probably a question of the latter’s more obscure vocabulary. Another student found the question of Sardanapalus’s culpability interesting: on the whole, the play presents him as an unconventional hero and endorses his hedonism and pacificism; yet there is still a sense that he has neglected the government of his kingdom, letting Assyria fall into anarchy. We also found ourselves laughing a good deal: the actors, with often impeccable comic timing, did a great job of bringing out Byron’s ironic sense of humour and wordplay. Congratulations to the cast and director, and many thanks to all the academics, theatre people, and others responsible for putting this on.