Aristophanes' Clouds and Lysistrata
Translated by Greg Robic and Company
Directed by Greg Robic
March 10-12, 1994
St. Michael's Theatre, Alumni Hall
University of St. Michael's College
University of Toronto
Ontario, Canada
Reviewed by Kathy Simonsen
Department of Classics
16 Hart House Circle
University of Toronto
Toronto,
Ontario, M5S 1A1,
CANADA
This is not a review for those who are interested in lighting and
directing. People who know about these things may mutter that the
former was uninspired and the latter weak in places. But neither
perceived fault impaired my enjoyment of the plays. This is a
review for those who enjoy hearing about undergraduates
enthusiastically involving themselves in Classical dramas, and who
love going to the theatre, laughing themselves sick and then
embarrassing themselves by giggling, without apparent cause, all
the way home on the streetcar.
This past March Mr. Greg Robic, an undergraduate at this
university, sought to prove that the success he and his friends
enjoyed last season was no accident. A sold-out house on opening
night testified to the happy memories of last year's audience. As the
lights dimmed on this double-bill the anticipation in the hall was
almost like that of children on Christmas morning.
The Lysistrata is a revival of last year's production with the
addition of a few more songs. On the whole it is too good a show
to let wither away unrepeated. The translation sticks fairly close to
the original, allowing for a certain amount of modernizing such
as the women vowing to dial '911' if their desperate husbands try
to force the issue on them.
The Clouds is this year's effort, and is, I think, a year better than
the Lysistrata. It seemed a tighter production, and the absence of
the agon was no loss. The sense that the final scene, when
Strepsiades fires the school, is merely tacked on, is a fault of the
play itself and not of this version. The addition of a second chorus
of Socrates' students worked nicely and provided some fine comic
touches and a very good song. The portrayal of Socrates as a
combination of arrogant, self-worshipping professor and
psychopath was just delightful as was the interplay between
Socrates and the chief Cloud who was responsible for Strepsiades'
testing.
What makes anything involving Greg Robic worth the price of
admission, however, is his ability to write the most outrageous and
wonderfully insane lyrics to some of the most famous tunes from
Broadway, Gilbert and Sullivan, and opera. He proved his skill
last year in the Lysistrata with such hits as 'Tragedy' (to the
music of 'Tradition' from Fiddler on the Roof) and 'The
Freudian and the Classicist Should be Friends'. Both are
impossible to forget and deserve (O Cruel Fate!) to be
recommended reading in intro. civ. courses. This year's crop from
the Clouds is no less fantastic. Socrates' introduction song, to
the music of the policemen's song from G. and S.'s Pirates of
Penzance, is probably better than the original, at least for a crowd
which can appreciate the lyrics. What Strepsiades does to the
Queen of the Night's aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute is
perfectly criminal. If you ever hear this version, Mozart's lyrics
will never sound serious again.
This new production of the Clouds is true to Aristophanes'
original intent in a most unexpected fashion. Little did the audience
suspect that it was still possible for contemporary (and Classical!)
scholarship to become a subject for song and dance. Nevertheless
'No Cock Fights Today', Socrates and the chorus' attempt to
expatiate on the theme of the Athenian reaction to encounters
between fellow citizens, seemed an excellent summary of Eric
Csapo's recent series of articles in Phoenix 47 (1993).
Both productions are characterized by Robic's lyrical insanity,
which seems so natural on stage that one is left wondering why
someone has not written these songs before. The whole show felt
as is it were full of energetic goodwill. The actors were fully alive
and gave the appearance of being happy to be there, and they
managed on the whole, I think, to communicate that feeling to the
audience. Which is why any production faults ought to be
forgiven. There is always a fear that the excessive organization of
happy amateurs will destroy the peculiar charms of the
unprofessional production.
One can only hope that Greg Robic's professors have the good
sense to fail him and thus keep him a perpetual undergraduate,
perpetually producing wonderful musicals for grateful audiences.
Kathy Simonsen
Kathy Simonsen is a graduate student in the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto.