Word: alcmena
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Those of you who are familiar with Greek mythology will know that the story of Amphitryon is not a particularly humorous one. Unable to win the virtuous Alcmena by any other method, the ever-philandering Zeus recreates himself in the exact likeness of her husband Amphitryon and so wins a night under the sheets with the loving wife. Over time this tale of unwitting adultery has been transformed into a farcical matter, one which has formed the basis for an impressive number of plays. Continuing a tradition started by the Roman playwright Plautus, the 20th century French dramatist Jean Giraudoux...
...major players in the central conflict—Amphitryon, Alcmena and Zeus—have maybe one fully developed character between the three of them. Most of their time on stage is spent ploughing steadfastly and inappropriately through Wilbur’s verse...
...Amphitryon 38, adapted for the Lunts by Samuel Nathaniel Behrman from the French farce of Jean Hippolyte Giraudoux, is approximately the 38th dramatic version of the Theban legend of how all-powerful Zeus (Roman Jupiter) had to assume the mental as well as the physical aspects of Amphitryon before Alcmena would bed him. The Lunts studied the play, which they were quick to see contained one of their favorite situations, for several months before trying it out last June in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Later they took it to Baltimore, Washington and Cleveland, to whose critics the play seemed...
Featherlight, the tale gets going when Jupiter's bang-crash arrival on earth- he forgot the law of gravitation-brings it home to him that assuming human simplicity is going to be a very complicated process. To gain Alcmena he has to sacrifice his wistful whim to be loved for himself alone. Husbandly attention Alcmena welcomes, lover's desire she abhors. "Desire is a half-god," she affirms. "Let's leave the half-gods to the adolescent girls and the casually married." In the battle of wits and wills between the omnipotent god and the constant matron...
...Presumably to simplify matters for a nonclassical audience, half the cast of Amphitryon, 38, has Greek names, Half-Roman, while Guild programs listed Alcmena as Alkmena, a simplified version of neither...