Ancient Warriors speak to troops through Greek play

Courtesy Photo | Dramatic readers used ancient Greek literature to provide a window to the past to show service members here that the effects of war are timeless. The play, called "Ajax," has been performed by the group 116 times this year for military audiences all over the world.  

UNITED STATES

09.24.2010

Courtesy Story

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center

By Cpl. Andrew S. Avitt

Dramatic readers used ancient Greek literature to provide a window to the past to show Marines and sailors that the battle seldom ends when the air falls silent, and that the effects of war are timeless.

The play "Ajax" consists of five scenes depicting a well-known and brave soldier, Ajax, and his emotional breakdown, which eventually leads to his suicide.

The story of the grief-stricken warrior aimed to illustrate the psychological and physical problems of some veterans returning from war, and the dangers of bottling up emotions that come with their experiences, said Bryan Doerries, founder of Theater of War, Productions.

Sophocles, an Athenian general and playwright, wrote the play more than 2,500 years ago and had it performed for his army of 17,000 soldiers.

The story the audience heard was written by warriors for warriors, Doerries said during the introduction.

The way Sophocles depicts the mentally wounded warrior is one aspect of the play that relates to military members, he said. "The way he depicts what goes on in his mind and what happens after his suicide."

The ancient literature was then put into context, matched with emotion and quickly came to life before the Marines and sailors in the Base Theater.

"The professional actors made the story," said Lance Cpl. Austin Grey, an infantryman with Headquarters Company, 7th Marine Regiment. "The way they presented it was great and much better than other briefs I've had in the past," said the Tampa Bay, Fla., native.

After the reading a four-person panel of Marines, sailors and civilians from the audience took to the stage to share their interpretations and experiences pertaining to Ajax's suicide.

"I can relate with the story of Ajax, because as a commander, I didn't have the luxury to show emotion," said Maj. Trent Gibson, an assistant operations officer with Regimental Combat Team 7, who has served on two combat deployments in Iraq.

"I had to be the rock, to help focus my Marines on the mission.

"When it was over, ultimately I had to realize, 'Pay tribute to the dead, but focus on the living,'" he said.

"Inside us, we all have weakness, fears and insecurities that make us human. As Marines, we think that we have to be machines, but we don't. We think that having emotions makes us weak, makes us less of a man, but it doesn't," Gibson added.

Another panelist, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Shauna KingHollis, head of the deployment health department for the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital, said there is a close correlation between what Ajax experienced and what she has seen from Marines and sailors returning from war.

"The timelessness - I think that through the depiction in the play, we realize these symptoms are very common in military members today," she said.

The audience discussed different aspects of the play, comparing returning Marines and sailors, "modern day warriors," to those of the past.

"War doesn't necessarily stop when the fighting stops. Just because his enemy was dead and buried, Ajax may have thought that the war was over, but it wasn't," Gibson added. "As warriors weakness is reviled. He didn't realize he needed to face his emotions to stay strong."

The presentation offered a unique perspective and broke the mold of the typical PowerPoint presentation, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Mitchell Groke, a corpsman with RCT-7, and a Bossier, La., native.

The Theater of War has completed 116 performances for more than 20,000 members of the military communities in the last year, 22 of them for Marine Corps audiences.

In his closing remarks, Doerries offered one last thought before the Marines and sailors returned to their daily duties.

"You're not alone. Just like you're not alone in this room, in this country, or in the world, you're not alone across time."

• Date Taken: 09.24.2010
• Date Posted: 09.24.2010 13:59
• Story ID: 56924
• Location: US