Laocoön

## Cast

### Played By

Ali Goldsmith, Ferghas Clavey. Fred Gehrig, Georges Hann, Harry Price, Mitch Harvey, Omar Gordon, Robert Mcneill, Ryan O'Neill, Timothy John Bartlett

Laocoön is an artist, creating votives in the Divine Deities Pottery Studio (Troy), and a powerful seer.

He finds himself being sucked up into a prophetic vision that Apollo conjures for Cassandra, showing her the Fall of Troy. As a seer he encourages her to use her powers to lure Agamemnon back to Mycenae (Greece) into the murderous arms of Clytemnestra. He also serves as an aid to Persephone in her pursuit to regain her memories.

He is a mysterious character and his story arc revolves around his continuing predictions of the tragedies soon to unfold around the city, but much like Cassandra, he is largely dismissed and ignored.

## Loop

*Presentation of loop heavily dependent on Performer.*

Written following a loop 2, with performer Georges Hann

Laocoön begins in his pottery studio in Troy, creating a figure out of clay. He has a premonition of someone floating, which pauses his creating. He runs his hands through his hair as if shaking out water.

He puts on his coat and goes out into The Square where he witnesses Hades singing about missing Persephone, and then watches from the sidelines as Persephone emerges from the well, just as in his premonition.

Laocoön leaves the square quickly, watching from the shadows as Cassandra dances with Apollo in The Tenement Area. Laocoön has another premonition, this time about Cassandra being manipulated by Apollo.

Laocoön roams around Troy, dancing in a mimic of Neoptolomus drunk in the corridor. He returns to find Apollo and Cassandra dancing again in The Tenement Area, this time with Apollo cursing Cassandra that her visions will not be believed. Laocoön joins, hanging upside down from a swinging rope in the way Polyxena will die. Cassandra witnesses this premonition, and when Polyxena arrives, Laocoön disappears.

The sirens of Troy are sounding, and Laocoön draws a new premonition of three men arriving in Troy. Outside, in the square, Agamemnon has arrived.

Laocoön finds the Sake bar empty, and turns a marble into black sand. He sets up matches in a recreation of the girder structures in Mycenae. He collects a sake jar and cup, and when he pours sake, it turns into blood, which he smears in a circle around the sand like a whirlwind before walking his bloody fingers off the page and into the air.

Astonished with his creation, Laocoön once again goes through Troy, but this time heads up to The Nightclub Office. He has a premonition of what will happen, and goes into The Nightclub just as Cassandra enters The Nightclub Office in possession of the crystal skull. Through the glass, Laocoön mimes putting the skull on as Cassandra puts the skull on in the office.

Laocoön and Cassandra dance in tandem as Agamemnon enters The Nightclub Office. Laocoön's dance changes to the chest beating dance of Mycenae, and when Cassandra pushes Agamemnon to sit against the glass, Laocoön spreads blood from the sake jar across the glass behind his head. Cassandra sees the premonition of death and chooses not to murder Agamemnon. The two leave.

Laocoön hides against the wall as Neoptolomus enters The Nightclub, and flees back down into the alleyways of Troy (going over a balcony railing to jump down.) Kampe blows smoke over him before he staggers away.

In a back alley shack, Laocoön listens to a radio broadcast about palm reading. He pours black sand over an image of two children, and then blows it away.

Laocoön returns to his studio, washes his face and hands, and restarts his loop.

## 1:1s

*Dependent on Performer*
*Dependent on Loop*

Option 1: In the shack, when Laocoön listens to the radio broadcast about palm reading, he takes the hand of an audience member and reads their palm.

## Trivia

He is apparently introduced in the bar as Calchas

He may also have elements of Rotwang, the inventor in the film Metropolis. In planning documents, his studio is named Rotwang Studio.

He also appears to be an amalgamation of both Laocoön and Calchas.

## Mythology

Laocoön, a Trojan priest of the god Apollo, was known to have two sons, and his parentage is a topic of debate. Depending on the source, he was either the son of Priam and Hecuba or the offspring of Acoetes (the brother of a member of the Trojan royal family and mortal lover of Aphrodite), Antenor (a counselor to King Priam of Troy), or Poseidon. In the various versions of the myth, Laocoön suffers a cruel fate, usually involving punishment in the form of being blinded and/or with the death of himself and his sons by being strangled by snakes.

One of the most popular versions of the myth features Laocoön warning the Trojans about the Greek's supposed gift of the wooden horse, which was left outside the city walls. His famous warning "I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts" (commonly quoted as "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!") was disregarded by the Trojans, who took the horse inside the city, ultimately leading to the downfall of Troy.

Athena, who was supporting the Greeks, was angered by Laocoön's warning and decided to punish him. She blinded him as a form of retribution, which convinced the Trojans that the gods had punished him for defying them. However, Laocoön continued to warn his fellow Trojans about the danger of the wooden horse, so Athena sent two serpents to attack him and his sons. The serpents coiled around the three of them and strangled them to death.

In The Burnt City, Laocoön is associated with birds, which may be a reference to Virgil's version of the story. According to Virgil, after Laocoön and his sons were killed, a group of Trojans witnessed a flock of birds descending from the sky and killing a group of snakes that were hiding in the grass.

Additionally, the goddess Athena is often depicted with an owl as her companion. The owl is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and is associated with Athena's role as the goddess of wisdom, strategy, and war.