Past Performances

Listings and Reviews of Performances from 1 January 2008

Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles
6th - 8th February 2008
King's College London, Greenwood Theatre, UK
Performed in Greek with English subtitles
To book: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/classics/play/booking.html
Website: www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/classics/play/current.html

Oedipus Tyrannus is a dramatic rendering of the story of the downfall of the King of Thebes. Over the course of the play, Oedipus discovers that he has, unwittingly or not, broken two of the most fundamental taboos of human society; patricide and incest. The drama tackles some of the most difficult and disturbing aspects of human desire, violence, and political power. It also highlights the troubled relationship between man and god(s); Apollo is frequently invoked in this play, both as the god of plague and prophesy, and as the god responsible for Oedipus' fall from grace.

Hippolytus by Euripides
8th - 26th February 2008
Blue Elephant Theatre, 59a Bethwin Rd, Camberwell, London, SE5 0XT, UK
Box Office: 020 7701 0100
Website: www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk

Following last year's The Lady of Shalott, director Aaron Paterson returns to the Blue Elephant with another classic, using his signature style to bring to life the rhythm, images and language of the text through rich movement, music and song.

Queen Phaedra lies sick with incestuous love for her stepson Hippolytus. Told of her passion by her faithful nurse, Hippolytus rejects her. Pride, shame, lust, revenge, honour and love interweave culminating in a progressively sharp web of lies and unspoken truths that result only in death and tragedy.

Cloudcuckooland, eco warriors and bird poo ... Aristophanes' Birds for kids
13th February - 27th April 2008
Website: www.onassis.ox.ac.uk/cuckooland.htm

The Onassis Programme is proud to have commissioned Cloudcuckooland, a new musical for ages 7+ based on Aristophanes' Birds, with book and lyrics by Stephen Sharkey and music by Alex Silverman. The show will open in Oxford for six performances from 13th February, then tour to Hammersmith, Belfast, Newcastle, Bridgwater, Newport, Sheffield, Brighton, Armagh, Sutton and Greenwich. It is performed by seven actor musicians (who play more instruments between them than you would think possible). This modern adaptation contains lots of slapstick, clowning, juggling, ludicrous big bird costumes and a healthy dollop of political satire. Tour dates:

13th - 16th February North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford (01865 319 450; www.thenorthwall.com)
18th - 24th February Riverside Studios, Hammersmith (020 8237 1111; www.riversidestudios.co.uk)
28th February – 1st March The Round, Newcastle (0191 2605 605; www.the-round.com)
6th - 8th March Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast (028 9023 3332; www.oldmuseumartscentre.org)
12th - 13th March Central Library Theatre, Sheffield (0114 249 6000)
18h March Greenwich Theatre, London (0208 858 7755; www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk)
22nd March Marketplace Theatre, Armagh (028 3752 1821; www.marketplacearmagh.com)
28th March Riverside Suite, Newport Centre, Newport (01633 656 757 www.newport.gov.uk)
5th - 6th April Charles Cryer Studio Theatre, Carshalton (0208 770 6990; www.suttontheatres.co.uk)
16th April Bridgwater Arts Centre, Bridgwater (01278 422 700; www.bridgwaterartscentre.co.uk)
27th April Komedia, Brighton (01273 647100; www.komedia.co.uk)

Fram by Tony Harrison
10th April – 22nd May 2008
Royal National Theatre, London, UK
Website: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/fram

Fram is a major new work by Tony Harrison, whose many plays include The Oresteia, The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus and Hecuba. The epic sweep of this play takes us from a contemporary Westminster Abbey to the Arctic ship Fram – or Forward – specially built by the famous Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen who with his suicidal companion Johansen makes a bid on foot for the North Pole in the 1890s. Though incompatible, they share a bear fur sleeping-bag through the long winter. Nansen, still haunted by Johansen's ghost, is appointed to the League of Nations. As a figurehead of Russian famine relief in 1922, he conducts the first celebrity campaign, searching for means, however shocking, to make people care.

The Cows Come Home by Zachary Dunbar
6th - 11th May 2008
Camden People's Theatre, London, UK
To book: www.cptheatre.co.uk

12th - 13th May 2008
Brighton Fringe, The Udder Place (Underbelly), UK
To book: www.underbelly.co.uk
Website: www.zebfontaine.com

Zeb Fontaine presents The Cows Come Home – a chorus for the twenty-first century exploring religious fundamentalism through a farmer and his plagued cattle.

Cows is bite-sized Dance Theatre, combining in an intimate space the intensive and poetic immediacy of dance and sound. A farmer experiences a tragic reversal of fortune with his cattle leading to larger questions about suffering, responsibility and God's place in it all. This tragic transposition of the Oedipus story alongside themes of plague and religious belief explore the chorus in the twenty-first century by using dance theatre, sound and movement. It will melt in your mind.

During the last few decades UK productions of ancient Greek tragedy have attracted an audience hungry for new theatrical experiences. The modernised reception of tragedy and the chorus has acknowledged the leading influence of Dance Theatre. Increasingly found in fringe theatres such (The Gate, Soho Theatre, Camden People's Theatre), Dance Theatre proposes innovative approaches to the interrelationship of performance space, sound and movement.

Out of Chaos - Physical Theatre Comedy Blending Ancient Greek Mythology & Modern True Stories
20th - 24th May 2008
Blue Elephant Theatre, 59a Bethwin Rd, Camberwell, London, SE5 0XT, UK
Box Office: 020 7701 0100
Website: www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk

Out of Chaos re-imagines the tragic chorus and incorporates live music, clowning and physical theatre in a devised piece that draws on the international origins of the actors. In the beginning, there was chaos. Then the Gods took that chaos and gave it an order. They made the world and some animals and everything went pretty well. But one day Prometheus made a new beast, and he raised it up onto two feet so it could look at the heavens. Gods and mortals, parents and sons, sisters, lovers and strangers on the Tube come head-to-head in a playful blend of Ancient Greek mythology and modern true stories, exploring the ways in which people fight and rage. In addition to Out of Chaos, Temple Theatre will present a series of short theatre, music, poetry and art events, performed by associate companies and artists, in and around the bar area after the show.

The Bacchae
14th - 16th August 2008
Jose Quintero Theatre, Houston, USA
Website: http://novaartsproject.com/shows/bacchae/

Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility and prophecy, travels to his mother's home, the city of Thebes, with his followers, the Bacchants, and proceeds to wreak his terrible vengeance on his family and the city.

Oedipus Tyranos a version of Sophocles' Antigone
11th - 12th October 2008
Shakespeare's Globe, London, UK
To book: www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/boxoffice/

17th October 2008
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK
To book: www.liverpoolphil.com/eventdetail.aspx?Event_ID=1722

19th October 2008
Oxford Playhouse, Oxford, UK
To book: www.oxfordplayhouse.com.calendar/oph/View.asp?ID=513

For the first time in his illustrious career Seamus Heaney has allowed an operatic approach to one of his works. With Derek Walcott directing, for the first time in history two Nobel Prize-winning english language poets work together creatively on live music.

The creative team spans both nations and generations: Dominique Le Gendre, Trinidadian Composer; Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet; Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize-winning St Lucian Poet and Director; Peter Manning, Artistic Director, Manning Camerata, Concertmaster, Royal Opera House, Artistic Director Musica Vitae. Thirteen musicians from Manning Camerata are joined by an international and multicultural cast of actors and singers from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

The Burial at Themes a re-working of the classic by Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule
20th September 2008
Questors Theatre, Mattock Lane, Ealing, UK
Performed in Greek with English subtitles
To book: www.etickets.to/buy/?e=1530
Website: www.theatreofophidia.co.uk

Thyestes' Feast by Peter Wing Healey
25th October - 30th November 2008
Box Office: (001) 323 343 1171
Website: www.mesopotamianopera.org

The Mesopotamian Opera Company presents Thyestes' Feast. A tragedy about two brothers, who vie to rule in the city-state of Mycenae. The elder, Atreus, was king before his wife Aerope betrayed him, taking the younger brother Thyestes as her lover, helping him to steal the golden ram. This golden ram has magical powers. If you possess it you are the king. Thyestes is a liberal, generous ruler and Aerope sees herself as a divinely inspired liberator of her people, not as a wanton adulteress.

With a cast of professional actors and dancers directed by Peter Wing Healey, a dramatic score composed by Max Kinberg, puppets for the golden ram and the little victims designed by Claire Fraiser and costumes by Karolyn Kiisel, Thyestes' Feast will premiere at The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center in North Hollywood on 25th October 2008.