Amphitryon at Theater Basel

When happens when you suddenly find yourself eye to eye with your double who claims your identity? Sosias, the servant to the Theban general Amphitryon, reacts to this situation with confident pragmatism. Though the stranger is threatening to beat him, he remains sure of himself: «Your stick can make me not be. But it can’t make me not be me – because I am.» Amphitryon’s reaction is rather less assured when he returns home from victory over the Athenians to learn from his wife Alcmene that they had apparently spent the previous night together. The couple enter a deep crisis of trust, which culminates for Amphitryon in an identity crisis. This comic and also tragic game of confusions has been instigated by none less than the father of the gods and mater of transformation Jupiter. He descends to Earth from Mount Olympus as Amphitryon’s double accompanied by Mercury – in the form of Sosias – in order to seduce their wives Alcmene and Charis during their absence. A divine deception with fatal consequences that not only thoroughly confuse relationships but also reality. How can a man compare with a god?

Authors

• Eric Overmyer
• Peter Hacks