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Arsonists are systematically torching the town! First, they wheedle their way into your home and then burn it to the ground. As the play opens, a mysterious wrestler from a recently incinerated circus arrives at Gottlieb Biedermann’s front door seeking some “kindness and humanity” - perhaps even a little "bread and wine" to go with it. Will Biedermann let him in? Of course he does. Will Biedermann then believe the wrestler and his charming companion when it becomes evident to him that they are, in fact, arsonists? What will he do once he sees how far it has all gone?
Now more than ever in our post-fact world, it may seem that the ability to spot the truth and defend it is a necessary political act. What about us here at the conference? The Arsonists asks some poignant and pressing questions for contemporary Classicists. Do we prefer to hear and see only what makes us comfortable, turning a blind eye to reality because we are safely wrapped up within our respective (academic? liberal? tenured? gendered? classist?) bubbles? What's our role in respect to larger world events? Are we the ones supplying the fire to the arsonists? Do our actions (or lack thereof) feed the fire? Or, next time the arsonists march with torches, might we become the firefighters?

Poster for Arsonists