4 March 2024
Dr Jessica Dixon, Head of Classics
Classics students in Years 9 to Upper Sixth had a fantastic evening at the Kiln Theatre, Kilburn, watching an adaptation of Aristophanes’ Frogs, expertly translated for a modern audience by the theatre company Spymonkey.
In this Greek comedy, the god Dionysus goes to the underworld with his trusted slave Xanthias to bring back a playwright to save Athens, which was suffering great political and social turmoil at the end of the Peloponnesian War. However, Dionysus is a cowardly buffoon who gets into many scrapes and altercations along the way, including a singing competition with a group of frogs.
Sarah R, Lower Sixth
Various ‘Googlings’ of the plot of Aristophanes’ Frogs, the oldest surviving comedy, had not prepared me for the adaption of this classic. The entire play was performed by three actors, one of them something of a chameleon as she switched from a frog in a bright green poncho, to Charon the ferryman of the underworld, an initiate of a hippie cult, and, finally, an insect queen with long tentacles. Modern twists on the play did make it sometimes mind bending, but the humour proved how the timeless charm of the play can still be enjoyed by a modern audience. It was a brilliant night. Thank you to the Classics Department for organising it.