Aristophanes

-Aristophanes is an Athenian comedic playwright with eleven surviving comedies:

• The Acharnians
• The Knights
• The Clouds
• The Peace
• The Wasps
• The Birds
• The Frogs
• Plutus
• Lysistrata
• Ecclesiazusae
• Thesmophoriazusae

 

They represent the Old Comedy, combining personal attacks, obscenities, parodies, songs, and hymns with ideas on poetry, politics, religion, and the sexes. In Aristophanes’ The Clouds, Socrates is ridiculed and Euripides is poked at in others. The Old Comedy is fast paced humor that is the standing block for satire and farce today. In keeping with tradition, Aristophanes’ The Birds is a fantasy about escape from war. Aristophanes' influence on English drama can be seen in Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, and especially Henry Fielding. Robert Browning's poem Aristophanes' Apology has the dramatist defend the naturalness of comedy.

"Aristophanes." Web. <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t113.e341&srn=8&ssid=600446288#FIRSTHIT>.

Videos of past productions of the Birds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h59azdY2Bw8
- Municipal Regional Theater of Kalamata. Direction: Yiannis Kakleas; 1992

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31X4t4E4Quo
- Masque Youth Theatre. 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQpKFo6auQ0&feature=related
- CSM and London Sudio dance collaboration

To follow-up on our exploration of Aristophanes The Birds, the above video clips are from productions of The Birds. They show abstract productions that take the text of Aristophanes and produce something very unique from each other. I found it very interesting how vastly different each of these productions were. Example, the first clip from the Municipal Regional theatre has very stunning imagery which shocks you and doesn't seem very comedic to me at all; whereas the CSM and London dance collaboration moves me but in a different way than that. Typically The Birds is considered an old comedy but the productions I've found really strive to make bold, fantastical statements.

Off-Broadway Cast of the Birds

Original Off-Broadway Cast - 1983
The Greek Theater of New York At 120 West 28th Street

THE BIRDS
by Aristophanes
translation by Walter Kerr; directed by Russ Fast
set and costume design by Stephen Weagle; lighting design by Trevor Odell
original music composed and arranged by Evangelos Fampas
original lyrics and vocal direction by Jon Neil-Harris
stage manager: Ellen Feldman

Pithetaerus
Yannis Simonides Epops

Poseidon
Alexis Mylonas Procne, Julia Kiley Iris

Demetra Karras Koryphaios
Jon Neil-Harris

Euelpides
Russ Fast

Prometheus and Prophet
Ahvi Spindell Barbarian

God and Real Estate Man
Randall Wright

Messenger No.1
Paul Spirelis Lawyer, Julie Ziavras

Messenger No.2
Maxon Gee

Chorus
Elaine Psihountas; Mala Maria; Barbara Varveris

Priestess Bird
Kathi Gati Butler

Bird and Herald
Stephen Weagle

Heracles
Chris Koronios

Poet
Kevin Rodgers

In examining a work of Greek Tragedy and/or any other theatrical piece, it is important to research and discover previous productions to see what others have done with the material gifted to us from the writers. This is true for all staged productions but, I believe it is even more so important to research and learn about the Ancient Greek works simply because of the age gap between now and then. It is important to take note of the world the play was written in because all theatre is a reflection of its time. Once you've learned what you need to know of the period, than you can make an informed opinion of how to stage and conceptualize your own production.

One of the ways to start off on this learning adventure is to look at the casts of previous productions. Because we are exploring Aristophanes The Birds, there have been literally hundreds of productions of it throughout time and I thought it best to work with an Off-Broadway cast to explore casting choices and to see what kind of production they put on.

"STAGE - 'THE BIRDS' BY ARISTOPHANES - Review - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 02 June 1983. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/02/theater/stage-the-birds-by-aristophanes.html>.