Persians by Aeschylus & Cyclops by Euripides

The Persians: Xerxes has led a huge Persian military force over to Greece in order to destroy Athens. At home, his mother, Queen Atossa, awaits news of his victory. Waking from a terrible dream, she comes to seek council from the Elders left behind, only to discover that they too fear for Xerxes and his army. When messengers arrive with news of his defeat and the slaughter of his entire army by the Greeks, Atossa calls for her late husband, King Darius to rise up from the dead to give her advice as to what they must do next. Xerxes returns home, one of only a few survivors, ashamed and angry. A moving powerful play where Aeschylus asked his fellow citizens to think of the destruction of the enemy and their families with empathy, while celebrating one of Ancient Greece’s greatest victories.

Cyclops: When Odysseus and his men land on Etna looking for food, they are surprised to not only discover a flock of randy sheep but also a very horny Silenus and his satyr children who have been captured and set to work as shepherds by Polythemus, the monstrous Cyclops. Before Odysseus and his men can get away, Polythemus returns home and captures them, delighted that he will feast on man for his dinner. After losing a couple of his men to Cyclops’s appetite, Odysseus escapes the cave and comes up with an ingenious way to save himself and his remaining men and Silenus and the Satyrs. His plan – to get Cyclops blind drunk and then stab him in the eye with a tree trunk. A bawdy, hiliarious, panto-esque Satyr play by Euripides, and the only full length Satyr play we have.

Cast

Cathryn-Olivia Alexander (Chorus), Jude Ashcroft (Polyphemus), Saul Bailey (Silenus), Saul Barrett (Xerxes), Zoe Bond (Messenger), René Chang (Chorus), Phoebe Deller (Chorus), Perrin Ford (Chorus), Leo Gardner (Messenger), Georgina Hayward (Messenger), Leon Hewitt (Chorus), Andrea Jenssen (Chorus), Ella Joralemon (Chorus), Isobel Lawrence (Chorus), Fargol Malekpoosh (Chorus), Cian Morey (Chorus), Coby O’Brien (Chorus), Bex O’Connell (Chorus Leader), Mithiran Ravindran (Darius), Katrina Rose (Chorus Leader), Polly Shorrock (Chorus), Ollie Taylor (Chorus), Maria Telnikoff (Atossa), Ilya Wray (Odysseus), Willow Yang (Chorus)

Creative Team

Daniel Goldman (Director), Jennifer Wallace (Executive Producer), Lucia Quadrini (Assistant Director), Emma Gibson (Assistant Director), Katy Lawrence (Producer), Tom Shortland (Producer), Alex Silverman (Composer), Rebecca Laemmle (Executive Producer), Derek Penny (Stage Manager), Declan Boyd (Deputy Stage Manager), Coby O’Brien (Assistant Musical Director), Ollie Taylor (Greek Captain), Katrina Rose (Assistant Musical Director), Zhenglin Liu (Assistant Musical Director), Zoe Bond (Choreographer), Georgina Hayward (Choreographer), Ella Joralemon (Choreographer), Maria Telnikoff (Choreographer), Katy Lawrence (Floor Manager), Kit Burley, (Assistant Stage Manager), Clara Treherne, (Assistant Stage Manager),Emily Bretz, (Assistant Stage Manager), Stephanie Cho, (Assistant Stage Manager), Emma Dinnage, (Assistant Stage Manager), Supriya Finch (Assistant Stage Manager), Lucia Quadrini, (Surtitler), Emma Gibson Surtitler), Zoe Birbeck (Photographer)

Band

René Chang (Violin), Perrin Ford (Accordion),, Leo Gardner (Saxophone), Leon Hewitt (Guitar), Coby O’Brien (Trumpet), Katrina Rose (Ukulele), Polly Shorrock (Double Bass), Maria Telnikoff (Castanets)

After the brilliant experience of directing Oedipus at Colonus in 2019, I was delighted to be invited to direct the 2022 Cambridge Greek Play. I chose to direct a double bill of the Persians, the earliest known Greek tragedy we have a copy of, and Cyclops, the only Satyr play that has survived in full. And it somehow worked perfectly.

The original idea I’d had for Persians was of political leaders standing at lecterns reporting numbers of deaths in order to explore the performance of grief, but I felt that we were all exhausted, artists and audiences alike, having seen our own incompetent government leaders do exactly this on a daily basis during the pandemic. Instead, we decided to embrace the Persian’s innate mysticism and other worldliness and indeed other-ness to explore how we might tell the story today. The result was a timeless, measured and ritualistic 20-strong piece of choral chanting, speaking and song performed with gravitas, accompanied by stunning stage and lighting design by Jemima and Richard.

After the interval, the aim was to create a feeling of a complete 180 turn. Replete with dodgy surtitles, a cartoon inspired set, over the top acting, an amazing puppet Cyclops, and a chorus of horny satyrs and an orchestra of musical sheep, the second half was all about having as much fun as possible as our athletic Odysseus in light-up boots tricked the Cyclops into getting blind drunk to terrible puns and even sillier dance sequences.