WINDOW ON THE WORLD
Current listings may be found on the listings section at http://www.didaskalia.net/listings/listings.html.
What this section provides is an overview of recent and upcoming events pertaining to ancient theater, with occasional brief commentary contributed by someone who was present. Events are listed in roughly chronological order.
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1995 Classical Association AGM
======================
Douglas MacDowell of Glasgow ('Kleon and the sausage-seller')
discussed the portrayal of Kleon in Aristophanes' Knights. He
argued that many of the accusations made against Kleon in the play
may have had some firm basis in actuality.
Andreas Fountoulakis of Manchester ('Ousia in Euripides,
Hippolytus 514 and the Greek magical papyri') began from a problem
of textual corruption in Euripides, Reiske's conjecture of plokon
for the mss. logon. By setting the passage in the context of other
references to magic in the Greek world, Fountoulakis showed that the
conjecture makes far more sense that the manuscript reading.
Judith Mossman of Trinity College, Dublin ('Waiting for Neoptolemus:
Euripides' Andromache') argued for a reassessment of the
Andromache. She argued that the play is bound together by the
unseen figure of Neoptolemos, who, though he appears only at the end,
and then as a corpse, is the force that drives the action of the
whole play.
Richard Seaford of Exeter ('New light on lightning: the
house-collapse in Euripides Bacchae') examined the destruction
Pentheus' house in the Bacchae. Seaford advanced evidence that the
thunderbolt and earthquake had an important role in Dionysiac
initiation in particular, and in rite-of-passage tales in general; he
ended with an interesting parallel from the life of St. Paul.
Reported by Tony Keen
School of Greek, Roman and Semitic Studies
Queen's University of Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel: (01-232) 245133 ext. 3443 (evenings) (01-232) 662036
Fax: (01-232) 315325
E-mail: akeen@clio.arts.qub.ac.uk or a.keen@v2.qub.ac.uk
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Ancient Comic Opera Company
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Aristophanes' Clouds and Lysistrata
Translated and adapted by A.C.O.C.'s founder and artistic director
Greg Robic
At the Poor Alex Theatre in downtown Toronto
296 Brunswick Avenue (just west of Bloor and Spadina)
Clouds
Tues.-Sat. 8:00 p.m.; Sun. 2:30 p.m.
Tickets as low as Can.$12.50 for groups
to Can.$24.50 for adults on Fri/Sat.
Lysistrata
Thurs. 10:30; Fri, Sat. midnight
Can.$10.00 for students, Can.$12.50 for adults
DETAILS:
Clouds is a rambunctious musical comedy about
Socrates and his fanatical students in Ancient Athens. While
skewering modern university education, this preposterous play
features irreverent parodies of popular songs from Gilbert and
Sullivan, Mozart, Verdi, Bellini, Handel, and Slovenian polkas. At
the Athenian Festival of Dionysos in 423 B.C., Clouds won 3rd prize
(out of 3 plays), but Robic's bold and innovative production captured the
Best Director Award at the 1995 Hart House Drama Festival.
Lysistratahas the women of Athens staging a sex strike to stop the men's
war. Can the brave Athenian men control themselves? Or is peace finally
in the cards? Lysistrata is a musical comedy about seduction and
frustration, war and peace, domination and submission. Robic shocks and
humours in his unforgettable adaptation of Aristophanes' most popular and
most explicit musical comedy.
WARNING: Sexual content. For mature audiences only.
FOR TICKETS CALL: 416-944-2329 or 1-800-689-3579
from outside Toronto
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
Mister transmission
Classical 96.3 FM Toronto
HMI Industries Inc.
Filter Queen
++Reviewed in this issue++
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Euripides' The Phoenecian Women at Stratford
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Translated by David Thompson
Directed by Katie Mitchell
Presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company
First Performance 10 October, 1995
The Other Place
Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire
England
Tickets UK13-17
Box Office Tel. + 44 (0)1789 295623
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The Oxford Greek Plays
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A Double Bill from the Oxford University Classical Drama Society
Euripides' Hecuba, presented in Greek
Euripides and the Women
(Based on a comedy by Aristophanes), presented in English
Tuesday 30th January-Saturday 3rd February
Performances 7:30 and 8:00 PM
Matinees 2:00 PM
The Oxford Playhouse
Beaumont Street
Oxford OX1 2LW
Tickets UK8, 9, 10; concessions UK5
Box Office: +44 (0)1865 798600
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Kaboodle in The Bacchae
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Dancing with a Tyrant
13-14 February
8:00 PM
The Theatre
2 Spring Street
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire OX7 5NL
Tickets UK7.50, UK5.50 concessions
Box office: (01608) 642350
Fax: (01608) 642324
===========================
Ninth London Festival of Greek Drama
===========================
14 FEBRUARY- 16 MARCH 1996
Programme
Tuesday 13 February: Opening Lecture
Professor Richard Buxton:
'To Be or Not To Be: The Choices of Ajax and Oedipus'
1.15 p.m. in the Lecture Theatre, British Museum. Admission free.
Wednesday 14 to Saturday 17 February: Performance
Sophocles' Ajax
in the original Greek.
Presented by the Department of Classics, King's College London,
in the New Theatre, King's College.
Performances:
Wed 14 February: 2.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Thu 15 February: 7.30 p.m.
Fri 16 February: 2.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Sat 17 February: 7.30 p.m.
Tickets UK4.00 (price includes programme) from the Business Manager,
Department of Classics, King's College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS.
Phone 0171-873 2399 (24-hour direct line).
Please make cheques payable to 'King's College Greek Play'.
Wednesday 14 to Saturday 17 February: Performance
Euripides' Bacchae
in a new English translation.
Presented by the University College London Classical Society, at the
Bloomsbury Theatre.
Performances:
Wed 14 February: 1.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Thu 15 February: 1.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Fri 16 February: 1.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Sat 17 February: 7.30 p.m.
After each matinee performance, there will be an informal discussion with
members of the cast and production team.
Tickets UK6.00 (UK4.00 children and concessions)
available from the Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH
(phone: 0171-388 8822).
Tuesday 20 February: Lecture
Dr Nick Lowe:'Telling the Story of Greek Tragedy'
1.15 p.m. in the Lecture Theatre, British Museum. Admission free.
Tuesday 27 February: Lecture
'The Most Beautiful of All Euripides' Plays: The Andromeda
Reconstruction Project'
An illustrated lecture, featuring slides and performance extracts
by Chloe Productions
1.15 p.m. in the Lecture Theatre, British Museum. Admission free.
Monday 4 to Saturday 16 March: Performance & Lectures
Euripides' Andromeda
a reconstruction in English.
Presented by Chloe Productions
Tristan Bates Theatre
The Actors'Centre
Covent Garden.
Performances:
Monday 4 March: 7.30 p.m.
Tuesday 5 March: 7.30 p.m.
Thursday 7 March: 7.30 p.m.
Friday 8 March: 7.30 p.m.
Saturday 9 March: 3.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Sunday 10 March: 3.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Monday 11 March: 7.30 p.m.
Tuesday 12 March: 7.30 p.m.
Thursday 14 March: 7.30 p.m.
Friday 15 March: 7.30 p.m.
Saturday 16 March: 3.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Tickets UK6.00 (UK5.00 concessions)
from the Box Office,
Tristan Bates Theatre
The Actors' Centre
1a Tower Street
London WC2H 9NP.
Telephone 0171-240 3940.
Tickets also available for lecture + performance event at UK7.00 (UK6.00
concessions).
Special lectures
(all at 6.00 p.m. in the Tristan Bates Theatre):
Saturday 9 March
Professor Chris Collard:
'Recovering Euripides: The Andromeda and Other Lost Plays'
Sunday 10 March
Russell Shone:
'The Virgin and the Sea-Monster Resurrected'
Saturday 16 March
Dr Jenny March:
'The Andromeda Myth in Greek Art'
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About the Festival
The London Festival of Greek Drama is the only event of its kind in the
world: a three-week annual season of live performances, lectures, and
workshops, committed to bringing the experience of ancient Greek drama to
the widest possible modern audience. The 1996 Festival is devoted entirely
to tragedy, with new productions of major plays by Sophocles and
Euripides, and culminating in a unique reconstruction of one of the most
famous of all 'lost' tragedies.
This year's opening lecture is by Professor Richard Buxton of the
University of Bristol, one of the world's foremost Sophoclean scholars,
and author of the acclaimed recent study of Greek myth Imaginary Greece
(CUP). The lecture links to one of two new productions premiering this
week: Sophocles' Ajax, probably his earliest surviving play, is a
powerful, highly characteristic study of an extraordinary hero's self-
destruction and the subsequent struggle by family and comrades to make
sense of his life and death. The most Homeric of surviving Greek tragedies,
it looks simultaneously back to the Iliad and forward to Sophocles' later
studies of strong, stubborn individuals perilously at odds with their world.
By contrast, Euripides' celebrated Bacchae was probably the last play its
author completed before his death in 406 BC: a richly troubling and
multi-layered tragedy on the violent collision of rational culture with
elemental nature in religion, mind, and society. This year the two
large-scale Festival productions have been programmed in the same week to
allow visitors from farther afield to see both plays in a single visit.
(Note that this means that the dates of the Bacchae are now a week earlier
than originally announced in some pre-publicity.) In a lecture at the
British Museum in the following week, Dr Nick Lowe will discuss all three
Festival plays in the light of new ways of understanding Greek tragedy's
overall history and development.
Finally, a true first: the Festival culminates in the first performed
reconstruction of a lost Greek tragedy. In the third week, an illustrated
lecture at the British Museum by Chloe Productions (of the Institute of
Classical Studies) discusses and previews the Andromeda Project --a
venture to research and to reconstruct one of Euripides' most renowned lost
plays. This is followed in weeks 4 and 5 by a new English-language
production of the reconstructed Andromeda itself, in the Tristan Bates
Theatre at the Actors' Centre in Covent Garden. Originally performed in
412 BC, the Andromeda was one of Euripides' exciting, melodramatic
adventure-romances, described by one ancient critic as 'the most beautiful
of all Euripides' plays'. This unique series of performances seeks to present
the reconstructed play before a modern audience for the very first time.
Accompanying the weekend evening performances are three special lectures
on the Andromeda's reconstruction, themes, and depiction in art: by
Professor Chris Collard, co-author of a major new multi-volume edition of
the remains of Euripides' lost plays; Russell Shone, the Project Director;
and Dr Jenny March, a leading authority on Greek drama's representations
in art.
This programme contains full details of all events in the 1996 Festival. If
you would like your name to be added to the mailing list for future years,
please e-mail n.lowe@rhbnc.ac.uk, or write to the Festival Coordinator: Dr
N.J. Lowe, Classics Department, Royal Holloway, Egham Hill, Egham,
Surrey TW20 0EX.
The London Festival of Greek Drama gratefully acknowledges sponsorship
from the Hellenic Society, the Classical Association, and the Institute of
Classical Studies.
Material contributed by Nick Lowe
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Aquila News
=========
Aquila Productions is a professional British theatre company that
specialises in touring productions of Classical plays.
THE BIRDS 1997 season
Aquila Productions will be touring a brand new production of Aristophanes'
Birds translated by Peter Meineck and directed by Robert Richmond in
the spring of 1997. We are currently taking bookings for this season.
Interested persons should contact Peter Meineck at the adddress below for
further information.
THE ILIAD 1996
Aquila will be undertaking a short tour of The Iliad this March. We may
have one slot left. Please contact the company for further information. A
finalised tour schedule will be posted shortly.
EDUCATIONAL WORK
Aquila are working with The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas on an
educational program based around The Iliad and the museum's
'Discovering The Past' exhibit. This work is aimed at High Schools in the
San Antonio area.
TRANSLATIONS
Peter Meineck is currently working on a translation of The Oresteia for
Hackett Publishing. We are planning readings of the completed text this
coming summer. We will keep you posted. There are also ambitious plans
afoot to tour the entire Oresteia in 1998.
VIDEOS
The video of Aristophanes' Wasps is now available together with
Agamemnon, Ajax, and Frogs. Further information from FCA Inc
in New York: 102546.3466@compuserve.com or from Aquila.
Aquila Productions USA
603 Cedar Street
San Antonio TX 78210
AquilaUSA@AOL.com
Tel/Fax 210 534 6884
Material contributed by Peter Meineck
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Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos in Akron, Ohio
=================================
In Greek and English
Directed by Wallace Sterling
Feb. 29-March 2, March 7-9, l996
Sandefur Theatre
Guzzetta Hall
The University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
USA
Box Office: 2l6/972-7995
Limited Seating in this Experimental Theatre Space.
For further information contact:
Wallace Sterling R1WS@vm1.cc.uakron.edu
======================
Actors of Dionysus Spring Tour
=====================
Euripides' Trojan Women
19th February-29th March
Includes Queen Margaret's School, Square Chapel Theatre, Merchant
Taylors School, The Old Palace School, The King's School, Amey Hall
(Abingdon School), Priory School, Central Newcastle High School,
William Hulme Grammar School, Bedford High School, Benenden School,
Queen's Hall (Queen's College, Taunton)
Public performance
March 5-7 at 8:00 PM
Rudolf Steiner Theatre
Rudolf Steiner School
35 Park Road
London NW1
(3 minutes walk from Baker Street Underground)
Tickets UK7.00; UK5.00 concessions
Box office: (0171) 723 4400
Lectures
23 February (Square Chapel, Halifax)
David Stuttard, 'From the Judgement of Paris to the Women of Troy'
4 March (Amey Hall, Abingdon)
Oswyn Murray, 'Women and War in Ancient Greece'
For further information contact:
The Actors of Dionysus
26, Charlton Street
York YO2 1JN
England
Tel/Fax (01904) 642 912
=========================
Euripides' Medea at Trent University
=========================
Presented by the Classics Drama Group
Directed by Martin Boyne and C. W. Marshall
Performances begin at 8:00pm
February 8-13, 1996
The Pit
Lady Eton College
Trent University
Peterborough, Ontario
Canada
For more information, contact Martin Boyne at mboyne@trentu.ca
===============================
Classical Association Annual General Meeting
===============================
11-14 April, 1996
University of Nottingham
Drama-related lectures include:
Dawn Churchill, 'Euripides' Hecuba and his portrayal of female
violence'
Fiona McHardy, 'Violent Femmes: women and revenge in Greek
tragedy'
Elizabeth Moignard, 'Masks'
Ian Ruffell, 'Symposia in Old Comedy'
Surya Shaffi, 'Bending, twisting, and reversing gender in Greek
tragedy'
Larry Shenfield, 'A rhetorical puzzle: how voluntary is the sacrifice
of Praxithea's daughter in Euripides' Erectheus?
Spiros Siropoulos, 'The 'prominence' of women in Athenian drama:
Alcestis and the oikos'
Alan Sommerstein, 'Adolescence, ephebeia, and Athenian drama'
David Wiles, 'The theatricality of Hroswitha'
Conference fee: UK25, Students UK5
To book, contact Dr. J.H. Molyneux
Department of Classics
University of Nottingham
Nottingham NG7 2RD
Deadline for booking: 29 February, 1996
/ISSN 1321-4853
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