Below you can read the play scripts used in state schools as part of Iris' ancient theatre projects. Schools are welcome to use these, but please state in public use that the scripts are written by Graham Kirby, the charity's co-director.

ARISTOPHANES’ FROGS
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
By Graham Kirby

Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes and was performed at the Lenaia festival, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first prize.

It is a remarkable play and perhaps the most popular of Aristophanes’ comedies to modern audiences, telling the story of Dionysus’ journey to the land of the dead, Hades, to bring back a poet to “save the city”. It was written and performed at the end of Athens’ long war against her rival Sparta and as the city face a humiliating defeat, from which a few stubborn politicians shrunk. Yet as the city stared defeat in the face Aristophanes produced his most enduring and interesting play.

Why is it so interesting? For a start – and this appeals to modern audiences – there is the chorus of frogs with their chant of Brekekekéx-koáx-koáx, there are the numerous mythological and historical characters, such as Heracles, Charon and Dionysus himself and also it is a departure from the protest (or peace) plays of Aristophanes’ early career. Frogs focuses on the importance of art and culture in a city. This was even more important in Classical Athens than it is today. Theatre was a city event not a personal pursuit: it was part of the tapestry of civic and religious engagement that made up life in Ancient Athens. And also Frogs contains that very human quality: the ability to laugh at one’s own misfortunes.

The abridged version of Frogs, first performed at the Bloomsbury Theatre in July 2008 by Benthal Primary School Year 6, misses out a lot of the politics and cultural references of the original; its message has been slightly distorted to suit a younger cast and younger audience. But it still contains the central message and flavour of the original. Old Comedy was known for its bawdy humour, much of which has been edited out of this version, but some remains. Some characters and scenes have been wiped (such as the parabasis, where the chorus – in this case an unusual second chorus of initiate – state the poet’s message to the city) for the sake of simplicity. Some characters – such as Persephone – have been added and given speaking roles to ease the burden of the main performers. Other characters, such as Aeschylus and Euripides, have been updated to reflect modern society or modern views on art.

Obviously Ancient Athens was a male dominated society and all actors on the stage were males (even if they were performing female role) but certain characters, such as Xanthias, can be played by girls.

There have been changes but I hope that I have not deviated too far away from the original play and hope that you enjoy performing and reading the script as much as we enjoyed it.

Script

ARISTOPHANES’ PEACE
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
By Graham Kirby

Peace is an Athenian comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes and performed at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. Surely not just by chance it was first produced just a few days before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias (421 BC), which promised to end Athens’ ten year against Sparta.

It is a highly fantastic play and slightly unusual for Aristophanes. The inclusion of a flying dung beetle in the opening scene of the play gives an immediate impact and is an amusing comic device to catch the audience’s attention. The fact that the beetle is named after Pegasus adds to the humour. But most of all it is unusual for its lack of savagery for which Aristophanes is known: it is a hopeful play rather than an angry play. Over the last ten years the city had suffered greatly at the hands of Sparta and now perhaps can look forward to peace.

Trygaius, an Athenian farmer, sets out on his dung beetle to heaven where he is intending to rescue Peace, the goddess who has been m,issing for the last ten years. Unlike other Aristophanic heroes he is not doing this for his own private good but for the common good: he is tried of war and wants a return to pre-wars days. Along the way he meet Hermes, who becomes an ally in quest for peace, and avoids Ares (here renamed simply War). They rescue Peace from where she has been hidden with the aid of some fellow farmers (their presence in Heaven would not need to be explained in Old Comedy) and return to Athens. Once peace has been restored, Trygaius fights of the vested interests to secure peace in Athens and all ends happily.

This abridged version of Paece, first performed at the Bloomsbury Theatre in July 2008 by Benthal Primary School Year 6, updates (but simplifies) out a lot of the politics references of the original to suit that time at which it was performed. Of course, now these references need updating themselves! But I have kept them as they were when first performed even if just to give a flavour of the original. Of course, it is a slight hotch-potch of references: this is an Ancient Greek play, the characters have Greek names but the references are to modern day Britain. It might seem strange but it does work and the alternative is to keep in the original reference and no-one would find anything funny. I have always found, that if explained, children understand why this is done and like it.

Because Peace is a hopeful play I have turned the parabasis, where the chorus gives the playwright’s message to the city, into a recounting of how Trygaius and the chorus rescued Peace. This is sung to the tune of Disney’s Heigh Ho!

The second half of the play is unusual to modern audiences. Perhapas we would expect the whole play to be about the rescue of Peace and once she has been rescued for the play to end. However here the rescue is quite simple: it is the aftermath that is complicated. I have simplified the “vested interests” into the easily understandable concept of “villains” and various scenes and characters have been rolled into two scenes.

The reprise at the end is not in the original text but gives an opportunity for a finale ending which reflect the text.

Script

ARISTOPHANES’ CLOUDS
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
By Graham Kirby

The Clouds is a comedy written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes that satirised the intellectual climate in Athens at the time. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last of the three plays that competed at the festival that year.

But it survived and is an interesting play, perhaps chiefly because it gives us a depiction of the philosopher Socrates – even if it is probably a very warped picture! He is portrayed as a charlatan and a cheat but Aristophanes was actually a friend of Socrates and it is understood that Socrates saw the performance, waving from the auditorium. It is also noteworthy as it is the first play to discuss at length intellectual ideas and fashions rather than high and low politics. It also shows that even though Athens was at war, there was still a development of society and ideas that existed outside that straitjacket.

Essentially the play is a clash between old and new; the old is represented by Strepsiades, an old Athenian who is heavily in debt because of his son’s gambling; the new is represented by Socrates, here the head teacher at the Thinkery, and Pheidipiddes, Strepsiades’ son. The are two opposing and polarised forces that can find no common ground so the only option is for Strepsiades to learn “the wrong argument” and avoid his creditors. This him and his son do, but with distrastrous consuequences. The play, although full of Aristophanes “robust” humour, is very “moral” and its messages easily applied for younger performers and audiences.

Also the play is one of the easiest ones to adapt. It has a small central cast – unlike Birds and Frogs there are few small characters wandering on and off – and the plot is very simple. The chorus of Clouds plays a bigger role than in some of my other adaptations (perhaps to make up for the smaller cast) and here we have an intact (and in tact) parabasis. The chorus of Clouds break off from the action of the play to tell the lesson to the audience. Also at the end of the play the sum up the message of the play, like a Greek chorus should!

Unfortunately there are few specifically female parts. Indeed so defined are the roles (father, son etc) that there are hard to characterised as gender neutral but those are decision for the director not the translator!

I have kept in a lot of the “filthy” humour of the original, not just because it is funny (and appealing to children who often think of Ancient Greek as rather lofty) but also because it seemed to stress Strepsiades’ ignorance and vulgarity in contrast to the more sophisticated Socrates and Pheidippides.

Once again, there are references to 2009 when this play was first performed by various schools as part of the Iris Festival on Greek Drama. As the recession hit home and Gordon Brown became even more unpopular it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. We were also performing right by City Hall, hence the Boris Johnson (London Mayor and Iris patron) jokes. I am sure these are easily edited out or updated and they are far preferable to the original references, which younger performers certainly would not get.

Script

ARISTOPHANES’ BIRDS
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
By Graham Kirby

The Birds is a comedy by the Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia where it won second prize.

Birds is especially popular with modern audiences as it is the perfect realisation of fantasy (and the play from where we get our English expression Cloud Cuckooland). Is it only co-incidence that this most fantastic of plays took place when Athenian hubris reached its zenith with the spectacularly ill-conceived Sicilian expedition. Probably yes! It has been called a fairly conventional example of Old Comedy. It tackles the discontent there was at the time in Athens but does not aim its fair at particular figures, instead its lampooning comes in later and builds up to a crescendo at the end.

Euelpides (Good Hope) and Pithetaerus (Trusting) leave Athens to live with the birds who seem to them to lead an ideal existence. In doing so they found a new city in the clouds which they call Cloud Cuckooland (Nephelokokkygia). It is the perfect city from where they can escape the travails and complications of city life but is soon interrupted by those from whom they were originally trying to flee. Whether by accident or design Pithetaerus soon takes on a darker and more tyrannical role and he assumes responsibility for the city and pits himself against the immortal gods. It is a battle which he ultimately wins and ends the play as more powerful than Zeus. It is a battle between rational idealisation and irrational realism, the latter coming out on top but as a student once said to me with one arm raised like Che Guevara: “You’ve gotta have hope!”

The Birds, which The Iris Project first staged as part of the Iris Festival of Greek Drama in 2008 at the Scoop More London, is one of the most satisfying Greek plays to put on with a younger cast: there is fantasy, a chorus of birds – beautifully adorned as a Greek chorus should be -, some brilliantly funny archetypal characters which stretch actors’ potential, loads of small but important part and various mythological character. Throw in a bit of satire and it is near perfect. Moreover in this adaptation the parabasis, half way through the play, retains the simple message of the original and gives the chorus an important role.

Most of the parts can be played by either girls or boys (perhaps with the exception of some of immortals and heroes) and there was little risqué humour to edit – although I left one brilliant joke from the original in the parabasis. A few – but only a few – characters have been excised or elided but other than that it is the closest in terms of text and structure to the original that I have translated and abridged.

Performed by London schools in 2009 there are some references that would need to be updated or changed – an easy task – and there is also some great audience interactive, which I have inserted as “breaking the fourth wall” was often an element of Aristophanes.

I really hope you enjoy reading or performing Birds as much as well all enjoyed staging it!

Script

BACCHAE by Euripides (coming soon)
Introduction
Script

 

We believe that all children are entitled to the opportunity of learning about the languages and cultures of the ancient world, and that these subjects are wonderful tools for enhancing literacy, social awareness and analytical skills. Through a range of initiatives in UK state schools, we work to enrich the curriculum by promoting learning about the ancient world.