David explains the plot of Venice Saved in a matter of minutes, then follows it up with an equally brief argument for our attention to it.
Colleen dives into the compelling and contradictory real life story of Simone Weil. Prodigy, political activist, christian mystic, anorexic, martyr, saint.
Gideon sifts briskly through Weil’s writings and focuses on the ideas most pertinent to Venice Saved, and makes a comparison between the schematic nature of her larger corpus and the more ambiguous character of her only play. Much of this revolves around the contrast between her ideas of the city and of the state.
James introduces the history of the play Venice Saved itself: an unfinished first draft of a first play, rooted in classical models, and written in 3 days while fleeing the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1940.
