Aeschylus Unbound is a new play co-authored by Glen Williamson and the late Mala Powers, acclaimed star of film and television, about the ancient Greek Mysteries and Aeschylus, who is known as the Father of Tragedy.  It is performed by Glen Williamson and Laurie Portocarrero.

". . . consummate artists who, like Aeschylus in his day, take the most advanced spiritual teachings combined with his/their/our deepest spiritual longings and thrust them before us on stage with such startling power and clarity that the esoteric and unreachable stand before us as immediate and present actors in our contemporary world.

"These three – Mala Powers, Glen Williamson, and Laurie Portocarrero – lead us into better knowing our age, better knowing ourselves, through meeting history and embracing the future all at once, with a totally fresh enthusiasm. It is a miracle how these artists can take past and future, living and dead, the strivings of Aeschylus together with our own contemporary longings, the history and traditions of ancient Greece with the yearning and the efforts of modern seekers, and weave them before us into one eternal reality. . . . unforgettably splendid. Thank you!

The destiny of Aeschylus in relation to the Mysteries of Eleusis has been a deeply felt interest of mine since seeing “The Oresteia” as a teenager. So when Mala shared with me (in December of 2003) her imagination of a priestess in Eleusis and her young pupil Aeschylus, I was so stunned and shaken that I could hardly contain myself. Having discovered our shared passion for this subject, Mala asked me (in June of 2004) to collaborate with her to create a piece about Aeschylus and the priestess for the two of us to perform together.

In the summer of 2005, the Los Angeles Branch of the Anthroposophical Society offered us a venue for the premier. That invitation helped focus and sustain our work even beyond Mala’s crossing. In between various other projects, we immersed ourselves in imaginative, intuitive, and historical research, meeting when we could on one coast or the other to flesh out the story and gradually negotiate and hammer out an outline.

            In May, 2007, while I was on my way to California for a week of work with her on the play, Mala was diagnosed with leukemia and checked in to the hospital. She insisted that I come to the hospital each morning so we could work while she was receiving treatment. We finished a rough draft and read through it out loud together, in the hospital on May 14^th, for the first and last time.

            Mala crossed the threshold of death on June 11, 2007 surrounded by friends and love.

            Aeschylus Unbound premiered on schedule on September 22, 2007, at the Los Angeles Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. Mala’s young protégée Kim Barrett played Mala’s role of Dona, the priestess, and also directed and designed the lighting, set and costumes. On June 11, 2008, singer and Broadway actress Dorothy Emmerson played Dona in a staged reading at the Christian Community in New York City.

            Mala has continued to influence and encourage the further development and polishing of the play from where she is now – through Kim’s extraordinary talent and devotion to Mala, through Dorothy’s painstaking insistence on clarity and flow, and through Laurie’s immediate, heartfelt and comprehensive grasp of the role of Dona and the meaning and arc of the play.

– Glen Williamson

   August, 2008