Funeral Games

Written and Directed by John Jahnke

Premieres February 2013

La Mama/The Ellen Stewart Theatre, New York City

Inspired by Book XVI of Homer’s The Iliad, Funeral Games wryly explores the highly debated relationship between the warrior Achilles and his beloved Patroclus, during the epic Trojan War. Employing a bitingly modern tone, the original script investigates such present-day issues as the repression of gays in the military, gay marriage, aggressive quests for celebrity and fame – all informed by the backdrop of an imprudent war. As the couple figures prominently in lost plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, a handful of surviving fragments from these works are woven into the text. Developed through LMCC, Abrons Art Center and an earlier workshop at The Public Theater.