At 8:01 p.m. on May 4th, 2015 we performed a site-specific production of Sophocles’ Sinon (using the textual fragments that have survived) in the Emeryville Mudflats: adjacent to the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. This work is part of a larger project called IOTA that brings to life the fragments of the lost plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
The weather was partly cloudy with a temperature of 52℉. The duration of the performance was three minutes and forty seconds for an audience of 14
The Fragments
only four individual words remain from Sophocles’ tragedy Sinon. The story is as follows: Sinon was left behind by the departing Greeks in order to pretend to be a companion of Palamedes — whom the Greeks sacrificed.
Sinon convinces the Trojans that the Wooden Horse is merely an offering to Athena. If the Trojans destroy the horse the goddess will punish them, but if they bring it within the city walls Troy will one day invade Greece and enjoy a great triumph.
The Location…
The debris art on the Emeryville Mudflats first appeared in the early 1960s. Among the memorable sculptures: Medfly Man waving from a giant chair; Heffalumps; Prima ballerinas; The Driftwood Five playing flotsam and jetsam; a full-size train; the Red Baron frozen in flight dogfighting with the Sopwith Camel; a huge Viking; and a boy mummy steering an Egyptian canoe with a gold casket strapped to the deck.
Yet, this shoreline is home to 90 species of birds: such as the clapper rail
barn swallow and black phoebe.
In 1998 Caltrans used a helicopter to haul about 80 Dumpsters full of art/trash from the mudflats. Including plastic and glass bottles, foam, rotting wood ties, utility poles treated with creosote, and the ubiquitous shopping carts.
Today the artwork is gone. Maybe an occasional rogue piece appears.
The driftwood and trash continue to wash up on shore.
Collaborators…
Todd Pivetti performed the role of Sinon