Greek Tragedy or Modern Day Farce?
It’s important to know what you’re going in for...
Good grief. If ever there was a moment tailor-made for Greek tragedy, it was the day Trump and Zelensky met. I’m not sure which mythology I could relate it to – there are so many. Perhaps Apollo and Cassandra.
Apollo, in his relentless arrogance bestowed on Cassandra a gift (of prophecy) presuming this largesse would guarantee his sexual demands would be met. When Cassandra refused to submit to rape, unable to take back the gift, Apollo issued a curse that no one would ever believe her – even when she predicted the destruction of Troy after a devastating ten-year war. Trump as Apollo believed he could manipulate the narrative, Zelensky as Cassandra was unsuccessful in getting anyone to listen to a truth too obvious to ignore.
Both Trump and Zelensky had former acting careers, so you could also imagine this as a theatrical stitch-up. Perhaps Zelensky thought he was walking into a first table read of a creative co-collaboration, only to find it was a final show being live broadcast to the world.
Although not the best way to foster a deal for world peace, Trump (as a consummate content producer) knew and noted that it made for “great television”.
Zelensky meanwhile looked like a man with a massive mortgage and hungry kids starring down the barrel of a really bad script. He thought he was going in for Saving Private Ryan but found out too late it was a bad sequel to The Office. Oval Office had been a cunning misdirection by the social media team..
Diplomatic summit of profound gravitas this was not.
Trump, of course, was everything you'd expect – bluster, vagueness, and rambling grandiosity. He seemed to think that 'helping' Ukraine meant pointing out how good he was at 'helping'—which is a bit like a small boy telling you how great he is at finding lost things when you’re standing right in front of them.
Meanwhile, Zelensky resembled a deer trying to moonwalk on a frozen lake. You can’t stop watching, but you’re absolutely terrified for what’s about to happen. His aides were looking around for some sort of Elysian Fields to escape to, where the reality of Trump’s impromptu negotiations could no longer haunt their waking lives.
And there’s more! What about the numpty who ridiculed Zelensky for not wearing a suit. Would he have been as sneering to Churchill who never wore a suit in wartime or Musk who never wears a suit anytime (and the only war he’s fighting is with his ex-wives – how heroic is that?)
But the most hideous part was Vance, obsequiously overacting to impress the director in the hopes that he might be given more lines. “What if my character were more vocal in this scene? I think there’s an emotional beat we’re missing here. I have notes”.
In the grander scheme, of course, this was just another reminder that we’ve entered an era where diplomacy, once reserved for the careful and the poised, now happens like a car crash in slow motion—complete with a live-streamed audience.
It wasn’t about diplomacy. It wasn’t about Ukraine. It was a comedy of errors starring two people who had no business sharing a stage.
A tragedy or a farce? As we’re constantly reminded, this is a both/and Universe. Both tragedy, farce and perhaps a Satyr play more absurd than any playwright could have imagined.
P.S. I still have some places for my fabulous retreat in Greece May 21-28. Message me for more details