Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 102

made in the interest of the balance of power, such as, for example, the U.S.
alliance with Saudi Arabia, a country that violates the human rights that the
U.S. allegedly supports.
In the aptly-titled Theatocracy, Peter Meineck, a classicist and theatrical
producer and director, argues that live theater’s empathic experience was
essential to Athenian democracy (Meineck ����). Drawing on cognitive
theory and neuroscience, as well as his own experience in theater and
deep knowledge of the ancient world, Meineck positions theater in fifthcentury
Athens as the place where voting citizens were exposed to differing
perspectives that equipped them to make mature and weighted political
decisions. Meineck argues that it was precisely this experience through
theater of multiple viewpoints, often divergent from their own, that equipped
Athenians to deal with the challenges of choosing the best path for their
fledgling democracy (Meineck ����).
Today, theater still resonates just as powerfully across the world. For Syrian
refugee women stranded in Amman, Euripides’s The Trojan Women became
a lifeline that spoke deeply and directly to them and inspired them to share
their own stories of trauma and tragedy with each other and with the world.
None of the Syrian refugee women who answered the call in ���� from British
NGO Refuge Productions to participate in production of The Trojan Women,
adapted to incorporate stories from the Syrian war, had any experience in
the theater, or knew anything about the play. Living isolated lives scattered
throughout Amman, the women took a chance on theatre, and found their
own voices, as well as a community. They spent weeks together, writing and
sharing their own stories, and gradually shaping the production Syria: the
Trojan Women that oscillated between the Syrian and Trojan wars.
Syria: Trojan Women Website
URL: http://bit.ly/18tAEwC
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