Socrates on stage, with notes on the problem with democracy

The other night I went to see “Socrates,” a play (currently at the Public Theater in New York), by Tim Blake Nelson, with the title character played by an awesome Michael Stuhlbarg. (In the accompanying photo, he is facing his disciple, Plato, on the right, played by the impressive Teagle F. Bougere).

Despite the mandatory grumpiness by New York Times’ reviewer Laura Collins-Hughes, the play is well worth seeing, and not just for people interested in Ancient Greek philosophy. The performance is almost three hours long, and yet it feels like a breeze because you can’t take your eyes off Stuhlbarg whenever he is on stage, nor can you avoid being transported in the time and place of Socrates, in part because of the set, designed by Scott Pask (the walls include passages from Pericles’ funeral oration — in Greek).

The play begins with a young Aristotle (played by Niall Cunningham), being introduced to Plato, and inquiring in a rather pointed way about why the Athenians killed their most famous philosopher. Plato begins to explain, and we are treated to a spectacular scene taken out of the Symposium, the Platonic dialogue in which Aristophanes explains the concept of soulmates, Socrates says he got instructed in love by the philosopher Diotima, and the flamboyant general Alcibiades crashes the party, telling the audience that — despite his best attempts — he was unable to (sexually) seduce Socrates.

From there, the play moves on to the charges against Socrates and the beginning of his trial for atheism, worshiping foreign gods, and corrupting the Athenian youth — never mind that the first two charges, as Plato points out, are logically contradictory. We first hear Socrates’ accusers, who are eery stand-ins for modern rabble rousing populists, and then the man himself, passionately defending his self-appointed role as gadfly to the rich and powerful.

At this point the play begins to alternate between the trial and a number of scenes from selected Platonic dialogues, where we see Socrates in action with his friends and opponents. In the end, of course, Socrates is convicted. When offered the opportunity to suggest an alternative punishment to the death penalty, instead of proposing exile — as expected — he says that the Athenians should offer him housing…