"Praise the bronze ornaments!" "...Nice bronze ornaments"

[tamaranth]

I was very pleasantly surprised by the UCL Classics Department's production of Aristophanes The Wasps. Flipping through the (poorly proofed) programme before the play began, I was reminded that this is a comedy (allegedly) about jury service, power without responsibility, and the institutional abuse of the tribute paid to Athens by a thousand cities.

But it's funny

I admit I wasn't convinced at first: the opening scene, with two slaves trying to sleep, felt earnestly inept in the way that only amateur theatre can. Then things picked up with the arrival of the Chorus -- and the Chorus Leader's whining Son, modelled with devastating accuracy on Kevin the Teenager -- and with the appearance of the father/son duo, Procleon and Anticleon. Anticleon was a Girl, and the painted-on beard fooled (I hope) no one. Procleon, herhis father, jury-service addict, was played extravagantly by Alex Trippier. He will go far. Or could, anyway: he has real talent for comic (as opposed to OTT funny) acting. He played Procleon as a frail, quavering old man with a robust vocabulary and a devastating knack for mimicry. Anticleon, describing how to behave at a posh drinking party: "You must praise the bronze ornaments". Procleon, feebly: "Nice bronze ornaments."

I am not going to recount the plot, as it is daft. Read it here and find the text, in a far less lively translation, here: UCL used the David Barrett/Penguin translation (not the David Barrett, or so I profoundly hope ) and updated it a bit.

But I will praise and glorify the Effects department, with especial reference to:
- one DONKEY, performed as pantomime horse, with Procleon dangling under its belly in an effort to escape to jury service
- two DOGS (one spotted, one not) on trial for eating a cheese and the battery-operated, bouncy twin PUPPIES of the defending DOG.
- one CHEESE GRATER, also on trial
- one FLUTE GIRL, of the inflatable variety.

And Procleon's diatribe on modern dance at the end was as accurate now as when first written, though I will bet substantial sums that the original never wore day-glo pink legwarmers.

Ah, Culture! A splendid evening all in all -- thanks to swisstone, who will by now have posted his theory on the root of British comedy, and to ladymoonray, who I hope is still asleep.