Only the dead have seen the end of war.
- Plato
In World War II, they called it "shell shock." In World War I, it was "battle fatigue." In the Civil War, "soldier's heart."
And in ancient Greece,
He seems either still frenzied, or else grieving
For his past frenzies, now he sees their work.
- from Ajax,
by Sophocles
The L.A. Times ran a story today about a program I had never heard of. Theater of War was at Camp Pendleton for a few days last week, presenting Sophocles' Ajax to an audience of Marines and their families.
Written about 2,500 years ago, "Ajax" explores the torment of a Greek warrior returning from combat with thoughts of rage, revenge and suicide. His family and fellow soldiers struggle with his anger and feelings of having been dishonored and abandoned . . .
- in other words, Ajax returned from the Trojan War suffering from PTSD.
Theater of War is in the midst of presenting some 100 performances of Ajax (as well as Philoctetes, another of Sophocles' plays about the price of war) to military communities across the United States and overseas, under a $3.7-million Pentagon contract. (Upcoming venues include Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Fort Riley in Kansas.)
Theater of War presents readings of Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes to military communities across the United States. These ancient plays timelessly and universally depict the psychological and physical wounds inflicted upon warriors by war. By presenting these plays to military audiences, our hope is to de-stigmatize psychological injury and open a safe space for dialogue about the challenges faced by service members, veterans, and their caregivers and families.
The performance at Camp Pendleton featured actors David Strathairn (Oscar-nominated for his performance as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck), Emmy Award winner Jeffrey Wright and Emmy-nominated Gloria Reuben. In an earlier New York Times article, Theater of War founder and director Bryan Doerries talked about the project:
"Through theater we’re trying to offer some ideas and experiences for our troops and veterans to think about when they don’t feel comfortable opening up about their private thoughts," said Mr. Doerries, whose work grew out of an earlier effort, the Philoctetes Project, that drew media attention for a performance at the Juilliard School last fall.
"Sophocles was himself a general, and Athens during his time was at war for decades," he continued. "These two plays were seen by thousands of citizen-soldiers. By performing these scenes, we’re hoping that our modern-day soldiers will see their difficulties in a larger historical context, and perhaps feel less alone."
Theater of War's first exposure to the U.S. military occurred in the summer of 2008 at a conference in San Diego in front of an audience of some 400 Marines, their spouses, chaplains and mental health professionals. "Most people came in their civilian clothes," Doerries said, "expecting to see [the movie] 300 staged - at least that’s what I was told afterward by audience members."
[W]e had no idea what to expect, so we scheduled a 45-minute post-show discussion. The discussion ended up lasting more than three hours and ultimately had to be cut off late into the evening. The gloves came off, and people spoke honestly, from their hearts and their guts, about what they had experienced, at war and at home. They spoke of the stigma associated with psychological injury, of what it meant to be a leader with regard to these signature injuries of the current conflicts, and of the collateral damage of war brought upon spouses and children.
It was then that I realized that Sophocles’ plays were just a warm-up act for the real performance — the town hall meeting in which military audiences were disinhibited by seeing their own experiences reflected in an ancient narrative and by the felt experience of real emotions in the presence of great actors. I remember looking out into the audience that night and seeing nearly 50 people lined up to speak at the microphone, who quoted lines from the plays from memory and related them to their own struggles today.
This is what it looks like for military families today:
Christina Whittemore said her husband, a helicopter crew chief deployed in Afghanistan, suffered nightmares and post-traumatic stress when he returned from Iraq. Like Ajax, he could not leave the horrors of war on the battlefield, she said.
"There have been times he's jumped out of bed and sworn an Iraqi had just left the room," she said.
This is what it looked like in Sophocles' day for Ajax, next to Achilles the bravest of all Greek warriors, after he returned from war and went on a killing frenzy, slaughtering animals and calling out his enemies, when finally he stopped and came to his senses, asking the narrator to tell him what had happened:
And gazing round on the room filled with havoc,
He struck his head and cried out; then amidst
The wrecks of slaughtered sheep a wreck he fell,
And sat clutching his hair with tight-clenched nails.
There first for a long while he crouched speechless;
Then did he threaten me with fearful threats,
If I revealed not all that had befallen him,
Asking what meant the plight wherein he lay.
And I, friends, terror-stricken, told him all
That had been done, so far as I had knowledge.
Forthwith he broke forth into bitter wailing,
Such as I ne'er had heard from him before
For always had he held that such laments
Befitted cowards only, and low-souled men . . .
"For always had he held that such laments befitted cowards only, and low-souled men . . . " Today, maybe, we know better . . .
Ars longa, vita brevis.
Semper fidelis.