The play contains adaptations of several classic Greek works: the slapstick comedy, Clouds, written by Aristophanes and first performed in 423 BCE; the dramatic monologue, Apology, written by Plato to record the defence speech Socrates gave at his trial; and Plato's Crito and Phaedo, two dialogues describing the events leading to Socrates’ execution in 399 BCE. Socrates on Trial is a play depicting the life and death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. The pace picks up significantly in the second act with Socrates' trial… Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophane's Clouds and Plato's Apology ... Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's Apology ... Socrates on Trial: A Play Based on Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, Adapted for Modern Performance, G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Socrates was a job less philosopher whose only form of income was what little donations received from others he met. The three men making the charges are Meletus, Anytus and Lykon. A much more likely explanation is that the offering was simply part of an annual religious festival that recognized the debt all Athenians owed to Asclepius for having recently delivered them from the plague. [18], In the words of reviewer Maya Alapin, “The play is refreshingly illuminating on the relationship between Socrates’ execution and the lasting influence of Aristophanes’ negative depiction of him on the evolution of the Athenian psyche. The charges against Socrates in his trial were the same accusations mentioned in the Euthyphro. [7] Large juries were thought to make it more difficult for jurors to be bribed. The play was originally published in 2008 by the University of Toronto Press. To educate him, Strepsiades enrolls him in Socrates’ School of Thinkology. [5] Having just told all of Athens that he respected the gods of the city and that he was not a corruptor of the young, Socrates would have been especially concerned to observe the city's rituals. The act opens with Strepsiades, an Athenian businessman, worried about his lazy son Pheidippides. At the end of the act they are also given the job of voting to determine Socrates’ guilt or innocence. "[19], This article is about the 2007 play. One effective way of holding the vote is to have audience members walk to the front of the theatre to choose either a black or white stone and place it in a bronze container. In the judgment of another reviewer, the play is “a worthy analogue of an ancient masterpiece.”[3]. It tells the story of how Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and for failing to honour the city's gods. The result is a “mind blowing, portrayal of debauchery and irreverence”[4] in which, rather than being educated, Pheidippides ends up being further corrupted by Socrates and his school. This aspect of the trial will be discussed more fully below. Yet, in Athens, he was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens and not believing in the gods. Naturally, Socrates stops … Plato's metaphysics and epistemology appear to have been originally influenced by Presocratic thinkers. The play succeeds in recreating an atmosphere of direct democracy and of depicting Socrates as deeply convinced of his own innocence. Voting by a public show of hands – which was common in Athenian assemblies, but rare in Athenian trials[9] – is not recommended, since a persuasive performance on the part of the actor playing the role of Socrates might encourage more audience members to vote in favour of Socrates’ acquittal than history allows. Not only were Sparta and Athens military rivals during those years, they also had radically different forms of government. The value of the play as a reliable source of knowledge about Socrates is thrown further into doubt by the fact that, in Plato’s Apology, Socrates himself rejects it as a fabrication. His trial and death have remained controversial until today. In 399 BCE Socrates was tried by an Athenian jury on charges of (a) denying the existence of deities, (b) introducing new deities, and (c) corrupting the youth of Athens. The American premier of the play was held at College Theatre within the State University of New York at Potsdam. If people thought a speaker was stretching or misrepresenting the truth, they’d often yell out, much to the delight of onlookers.[8].