'THE
BIRDS'
An
Adaptation of Aristophanes' Ancient Greek Comedy. Utilising a great
many traditions of Ancient Greek drama, such as a Chorus, mask and mythic
storytelling, this play provides an excellent complement to any Greek
drama studies or just as a performance in itself.
Scene
– a wild and desolate region; only thickets, rocks and a single
tree are seen
(The Chorus enter and address the audience)
Chorus: Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures
of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race,
whose life is but the illusion of a dream, hearken to us, who are immortal
beings, ethereal and ever young, for we shall teach you about all celestial
matters…
Trochilus: (rushing out of a thicket) Who's
there?
Mimon: (in terror) Apollo the Deliverer! What
an enormous beak!
Trochilus: (equally frightened) Good god!
They are bird-catchers!
Permica: (in terror) We're not bird catchers.
We're just ordinary men...
Trochilus: (Realising they are afraid of him)
Men? But men are bird-catchers!
Euelpides: But we are not men.
Trochilus: (Suddenly fierce) What are you,
then?
Euelpides: I am... the Fearling, an African bird.
Trochilus: And these others, what birds are they?
Pithetaerus: (weakly) I? I am a Crapple, from
the land of the pheasants.
Ergmem: I'm Scared-witless… a very rare bird.
Mimon: I'm the Nast-i-case of… Haemorrhoidia.
Permica: I'm a Pantwetter, from the... soggy underlands…
