Theatre
Ancient Gods
Հին աստվածներ
Levon Shant · 1912
Synopsis
The ancient gods: on the island of Sevan, a church built at a princess's expense is nearing completion. Her brother comes across the lake with his daughter, the storm overturns the raft, and a young monk saves the girl from drowning. From that day on, awake or asleep, he sees Seda return, calling him towards the world.
Context
The action is dated to the ninth century and the subtitle announces it, but the past is here only a setting: what is at stake is the division between flesh and spirit, a subject for which the author's seven years of German psychology and his reading of Nietzsche and Ibsen had prepared him. Two threads advance together, that of the superior and the princess who were young together, and that of the monk and his vision. The text was translated into English, German, Italian, French and Russian, Stanislavski staged it in 1917, and Gevorg Armenian made an opera from it.
Who it is for
A play of ideas, in Western Armenian, where the visions weigh as much as the lines and the young girl never appears other than in a dream.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the masterpiece of the greatest Armenian playwright, it remains one of the most frequently performed Armenian plays.