1. Jerusalem 2: The Satyr Saturday, 12 January 2019
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

2. The Satyr Play
Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to the bawdy satire of burlesque. They featured choruses of satyrs, were based on Greek mythology, and were rife with mock drunkenness, brazen sexuality (including phallic props), pranks, sight gags, and general merriment.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

3. FORM Structure and characteristics of tragedy
Comic form and rural setting
Central characters Are mythical heroes
Chorus of Satyrs led by Silenus (old) and given to dancing, drinking, whoring and use of “low language” in wild banter
Designed to alleviate the tension of the true tragedies.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

4. Tragedy Downfall of one of high status is inevitable
Inability to see own FLAW – a character trait which adds to the inevitability
Audience Learn through the suffering of the main character. Παθειν μαθος – the key to Greek Tragedy.
What lessons about our world and the Human Condition might we be being taught by Johnny?
Why might this feral outsider be precisely the right person to hold the mirror to 21st century society?
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

5. Byron as mythical hero? Meets Giants (story 4)
Escapes from captivity (Story 5)
Magical birth and creation (story 3)
Dares to enter the enemy’s lair and despoil their women (story 2)
Sexual prowess with Girls Aloud (Story 1)
Mythical prowess as daredevil
Cheats Death
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

6. Byron is more than human
“Despite a slight limp he moves with the balance of a dancer, or animal”
“Sticks his head in the trough”
Breakfast of milk, vodka, speed and egg in a pint glass full of recent cigarettes and other gunk
“long feral bellow from the heart of the Earth”
All Jerusalem PP9&10
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

7. Role To battle against the evil powers of the state and save the world
To protect the innocent
To Allow initiation rites to take place safely
To exist on the liminal boundary between the human world and the superhuman
To present an alternative vision of society and mankind
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

8. Chorus Led by OLD SILENUS in the shape of GINGER
Too old to be part of this group
Clutching at memory and trying to relive ‘glory days’
Often supported by satyrs due to age and drunken state
Wise?
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

9. The Satyrs Young followers of Dionysus (God of Wine and revelry)
Usually male (Satyresses are a later invention)
Drink and sex
Phallic depiction in art
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

10. in this play The satyr pack is wild but fickle
All will leave and all have taken part in humiliation via mobile-phone of their “god”
Even Silenus will be driven away as Pan/Dionysus/Christ faces his end
Christ?
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

11. Christ? The Virgin Birth myth The Resurrection
Can we find any echoes of other Christian messages in the play?
TASK: “suffer the children to come unto me”: explore this idea in the behaviour of Johnny and his followers…
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

12. Protector or Abuser? Phaedra is 15 and is missing for a week
She is living in Johnny’s caravan
Her step father is implicated by Johnny in abuse of the girl.
Jerusalem Pp80-81
“it’s not just you feel a little bit randy today?”
Bet it’s hard to sleep with her right next door. She in your dreams, boy? She in your dreams?”
Johnny is presented as innocent around Phaedra: “I don’t expect nothing from you, fairy” Jerusalem p.102
BUT society dictates that Johnny must be the abuser since she is under 15 and there is a lack of clarity about these issues. Society, in the shape of Troy, will seek vengeance on an outsider.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS

13. Another Pan Peter Pan Never ages Surrounded by “lost boys” Adventures
Battles Time
Implacable enemy in Captain Hook
Will be left alone when children return home
Look out for these ideas surfacing in the play.
Jonathan Peel 2015 JLS