“The magnetism which all original action exerts is explained when we inquire the reason of self-trust…. The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

It is impossible to understand the Socratic Dialogues without understanding Plato’s allegory of the cave. In Book VII of the Republic, Plato weaves together the story of a single man released from his imprisonment. Curiously, this man (the “philosopher”) returns to his peers, incessantly, to attempt to free them from seeing truth as the shadows, despite their threat to kill him. To trust ourselves—according to Plato—is to adjust our weak eyesight to the brightness of the day, beyond the institutions which enslave us.

Education Theater’s Socrates on Trial builds on this quest for virtue through a faithful adaptation of a selection of Plato’s Socratic Dialogues. Through Socrates’ accusation, trial, conviction, and death, we are led to question the integrity of the Athenian society characterized by an aristocracy eager to maintain the status quo and the hoi polloi so easily swayed and blinded by those in power. In the eyes of Socrates we see the same fear of democracy as that of our founding fathers, and that of republicans today. We begin to cast Socrates as a hypocrite, because his submission to the Athenian verdict seems so contrary to his own quest, and become lost in our own fits of passion.

Yet our confusion, which is so inflamed by the plot and the characters, is lifted by none other than the audience itself. Indeed, rarely does an audience so avail the plot of a play on the search of virtue. Defying all odds, ESL students express their heartfelt sympathy with Socrates from the very beginning. With them, we no longer attempt to answer questions in the frame of relativism but absolutism. Socrates is no more complex than ourselves, and we can love him, even if he believes in a utopia where philosopher-kings rule over the people with “noble lies.” We come up with definite answers to questions like:  Why did Meletus and the Elder Accuser sue Socrates? Is Socrates an Atheist? Is Socrates Guilty?

The play deconstructs Socrates’ action and demeanor and allows us to study them. Socrates knows all too well that when Meletus and the elder accuser accuse him of corrupting the youth, of believing in no god, of “making the worse appear the better cause,” what they really want to do is to find an excuse to kill him. For Socrates upsets the society’s hierarchy when he asserts that those who claim they are wise are really not wise. But could we assert that Meletus and the Elder Accuser are the ones who are leading the youths astray, when it is Socrates who is teaching the youths to argue with their elders?

This play ran at the Richmond Shepard Theatre from October 2012-November 2012.