News & Events
Kaloi k’agathoi’s Philoctetes
Since Kerrith Davies, first read Sophocles’ Philoctetes back in Mr. Rawlinson's AS Greek class three years ago, he has cherished a dream of bringing the play, a complex and subtle study of the effects of war on the character and conscience of the participants, to the masses. Instead, this summer he directed a deliberately small and intimate sell-out production in aid of the Perpetual Trust [fund raisers for the Cathedral] in kaloi k'agathoi's favourite venue, the Powell theatre, with Guy Rawlinson in the front row of the audience. Equally exclusive was the OH cast list:
John Crichton, also a member of that fateful Greek class, as the eponymous hero with the malodorous foot
Ian Corder, as Neoptolymus, the dashing young son of Achilles
Kerrith Davies, as the wily and unprincipled Odysseus
Chris Deutsch, as a sympathetic and bewildered sailor,
Ian MacKay, as his unsympathetic and bewildering mate and
Simon Andrews, ever divine as the demi-god Herakles.
Quite why Kerrith loves this play so much wasn’t quite clear to anyone until they saw his vision on stage. Even Mrs De Souza, who has always had grave doubts about the relevance of any work of literature without any women in it, has been forced to add it to her short list of exceptions, underneath Lord of the Flies.
His World War II setting [much discussion about the substitution of guns for swords and the eventual retention of the Magic Bow, as opposed to the machismo possibilities of a magic hand grenade or machine gun] enhanced the significance of the story for our times, while the incidental music composed and played by Liam Dunachie captured the atmosphere with eerie perfection. A short play [especially on the first night, when the cast bypassed three pages in the second act], its pithy brevity constitutes much of its merit.
The cast pitched in to manage costumes, props, staging, etc., largely themselves, with the expert assistance of the technical crew, David Taylor on lights and Jason Aftalion on sound, and the whole thing was put together in little more than a week, with the aim of adding the piece to the company’s portable repertoire, which can be dusted off and wheeled out in almost any venue round the country. Many thanks to Jamie Corbin, OH, for the sensitive photography, and once again to Tony Greatrex, who captured the whole thing for posterity on DVD.
