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The Phoenician Women

By Euripides - Stage play

Stage playStageIntroductory monologue

Roles

  • Jocasta - Adult (36-50), Senior (>50), Female

About this piece

Jocasta introduces the background story of the play to the audience

Summary

The story of this play is the same as Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes". It is the sequel of Oedipus Rex and it starts after Oedipus blinds himself when he discovers he has killed his own father and married his mother. Oedipus sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, decide to split the rule of the city. Each one of them will rule Thebes for one year and then switch. After Eteocles' year ends, however, he decides not to step down and eventually his brother raises an army from Argos to conquer Thebes. The two brothers fight against each other, meet in the battle and fatally wound each other. They both die and the king of Thebes, Creon, decides only to bury Eteocles in the city. This is the introductory monologue by Jocasta. She summarizes the background story leading to the story that is about to take place.

Tone

DescriptiveReminiscing life story/Telling a story

Use cases

classaudition
View on Actorama

Library metadata only. SceneFiend never includes script text here - pick up the published version to rehearse.

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