• The Tom Walsingham Mysteries
  • Clara who?
  • Stories
  • Contact

Scribblings

~ Clara Giuliani, storyteller

Scribblings

Tag Archives: Second Punic War

Rewriting Myself

19 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling, Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aeneid, Hannibal Barca, Rewriting, Second Punic War, Virgil

Again and againI find myself wanting to rewrite things.

Plays, especially. Plays that were staged with good success – one even published…

But now I want to rewrite them, because seeing them staged made me aware of rough edges, mistakes, things great and small that need some more work. And because years have passed and I have learnt a few things since.

Somnium Hannibalis is a stage adaptation of my novel of the same name.* Hannibal Barca, the Second Punic War, the price of all-consuming dreams… An intense little thing – if I say so myself. It had several runs over four years, it played well, and I loved it very much, but now… I want to write it again, to change things, to shift the characters around Hannibal, to have things happen onstage more. It’s not that I have grown to dislike it, but I know how to make it so much better.

Of Men and Poets is a play on Virgil – or rather, on the fate of the Aeneid after Virgil’s death. It was a commission, and it opened rather grandly, back in the day, to the presence of Seamus and Marie Heaney, Peter Fallon, the Gotha of Europe’s Virgil scholars… Then it had a good run and was published. And it wasn’t bad – but I was so green to the craft when I wrote it, and it shows in a hundred little ways. There are many things I know now, and wish I had known back then…

And of course I couldn’t know, because a good deal of it I learnt by sitting backstage or in the audience through show after show, and getting a feeling for what works and what doesn’t, and discussing things with directors and actors… So many lessons that I can and do use in writing new plays – but those old things, they were stories I loved (even though I panicked at first when I was commissioned a play on the damn Aeneid), and it seems a pity to leave them like that. They feel unfinished, and I want to work on them some more.

After the first run of Men&Poets, I told a friend I’d have to do something with it, sooner or later. He stared at me because, he said, he had trouble imagining that a published play could be regarded as unfinished.

“It is on paper, you know…”

Well, it wasn’t unfinished when I delivered it to the company and the publisher – oh, it felt finished enough. It was only later, that it grew unfinished again. And I have a notion that, the more I learn about playwriting, the more unfinished my old plays will become.

And also that, even after I rewrite them, sooner or later they will grow unfinished again, because this is how it works. If I’ll go on rewriting again and again, or what will be worth rewriting… well, this I’ll decide – or learn – as I go. As I rewrite.

_________________________________

* And yes, the Latin title was one of those mistakes…

Leaving Traces

18 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by la Clarina in History, Theatre

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Hannibal Barca, Mathilda of Tuscany, Second Punic War

hereOne of my last forays on a stage was to play the double role of Beatrice of Bar and a peasant girl in a historical play about Beatrice’s daughter, Mathilda of Tuscany – the great lady of the Italian Middle Ages.

It wasn’t exactly my idea – but the company was one Beatrice short after a last minute forfeit, and the peasant girl was thrown in for good measure, and I’ve never been terribly good at saying “No”…

Anyway, to make a long story short, I was there when Mathilda – Woman and Countess, was played, very appropriately, before an 11th Century church originally funded and founded by Matilda herself.

We had someone really good taking care of the lighting, and a suitably windy night – enough to stir the many cloaks, but not enough to mess with the mikes. So the play was lovely to look at, and we were all rather happy with the result.*

And after it was all over, I stood there with the director (who had also worked with my Carthaginian play) watching the lovely romanesque façade, as the crew took down the lights. It was a beautiful sight.Untitled 1

“See?” the director asked, pointing. “Your Hannibal, he left behind nothing of the sort.”

Which – as I admitted then, and have no trouble admitting now – is absolutely true. Hannibal didn’t leave behind anything of any sort, when it comes to brick-and-mortar – except perhaps the town of Artashat, that he may have designed for a king of Armenia, but even supposing it is true, the ancient Artashat now is less than ruins.

And this, theatre-wise, makes Hannibal by far the most interesting of the two – or, at the very least, the more tragic.

Come to think of it, there are similarities between Hannibal and Mathilda. Both were born to rank and privilege, both soon proved exceptional, both took on their roles very young, both had remarkable fathers they lost early and far exceeded, both played pivotal roles in the clash between the two great powers of their time, both left no heirs…

But Mathilda died leaving a reasonable approximation of peace and all kinds of tangible legacy, and having accomplished much of what she’d set out to do, after reigning for many years. Hannibal, on the other hand, died a defeated, hunted, betrayed exile, took his own life to avoid capture, and left… nothing.

HanNothing except a name that even his worst enemies admired – if grudgingly. Nothing except tactical notions that are still studied in military schools all over the world. Nothing except, and here is a paradox, the greatness of his enemies – because it was with the II Punic War that Rome graduated from power to Power.

And so, I’m sure Mathilda was a very remarkable lady – but my heart and my imagination root for the man who, defeated and with no monument to leave behind, managed to throw his name across more than two millenia – out of sheer, burning, titanic greatness.

____________________________________

* Well, with the possible exception of the author – another playwright, who never forgave me for saving the performance by stepping in at the last moment… But this is another story.

 

 

 

Related articles
  • Lecture | Patrick Hunt: Hannibal’s Secret Weapon in the Second Punic War (rogueclassicism.com)
  • In Carthage (lrb.co.uk)

Cannae

02 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by la Clarina in History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Battle of Cannae, BBC, Hannibal, Second Punic War

Image from page 24 of "The battle of Cann...

Exactly two thousand two hundred and thirty years ago, near the city of Cannae, Romans and Carthaginians were facing each others, ready to fight one of the greatest battles in history. Well, they didn’t know that – or at least, the Romans didn’t. Sure in their strenght and greater numbers, consuls Aemilius Paulus and Varro were confident that they’d finally give the Carthaginian usptart what was his.

But Hannibal? He must have known the battle he had designed was a tactical masterpiece. Certainly, he didn’t expect it to be his last great victory in the field… In the end, Cannae was his masterpiece and the high point of his flaming parable, and part of his intangible legacy – considering his tactics are still studied in military schools all over the worlds… Who knows, how would he like to know that in spite of losing his war, he won some sort of immortality for himself?

Oh, never mind me. I’m more than a little in love with the man – I’ve even written a novel about him. Well, two novels, technically. And a play, which I’m going to rewrite, because… because. And there are at least a couple of stories and a monologue still to be written…

And meanwhile, yes – today is the 2230th anniversary of Cannae, and here is a nice depiction of Cannae according to the BBC.

Seek and Find

♠ THE TOM WALSINGHAM MYSTERIES

Available on Amazon
Available on Amazon

The Copperfield Review’s first anthology – containing Gentleman in Velvet

Recent Posts

  • January Blues
  • Guest-posting at The Writing Desk
  • The kids
  • All those words!
  • One of those weeks…

Popular Scribblings

  • Raising a bit of hell
  • Tales of the Mermaid Tavern
  • Turnus
  • Dante's Manfred
  • John Ballard, SJ
  • Little Shakespeareans

Categories

  • Books
  • Eccentricities
  • History
  • Lostintranslation
  • Poetry
  • Scribbling
  • Silents
  • Stories
  • Theatre
  • Things
  • Uncategorized

Enter your email address to get a messenger on horseback... er, an email will reach you by email when a new Scribbling is out.

Join 1,698 other subscribers

RSS Feeds

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

No Blog’s an Island

Sapere Books

 

IBA

International Bloggers' Association

I tweet on Twitter

And I pin on Pinterest

Senza Errori di Stumpa – my Italian blog

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Scribblings
    • Join 311 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Scribblings
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...