No 1 - 25 January 2008 - Communications and Development ...

Euripides’ Cyclops: Not your average one-eyed Cantabrian4Associate Professor Robin Bond (left) and Dr Patrick O’Sullivan(Classics and Linguistics) prepare for a rare production ofCyclops.Christchurch audiences will be treated to anevening of lechery, buffoonery, cowardice,drunkenness and overall lack of decorum andsophistication when a rarely staged ancientGreek satyr play opens at the Old QueensTheatre next week.Euripides’ Cyclops deals with the story, madefamous by the epic poet Homer, of theencounter between the Greek hero, Odysseus,lost on his way home from Troy, and the maneatingone-eyed ogre, Polyphemos.The production is funded by the University ofCanterbury’s College of Arts and translated anddirected by Dr Patrick O’Sullivan and AssociateProfessor Robin Bond, both of the classicsprogramme. The timing of the productionwill coincide with the 29 th Meeting of theAustralasian Society for Classical Studies atCanterbury from 27 to 31 January.Dr O’Sullivan said Euripides’ Cyclops was theonly complete satyr play to have survived tomodern times.“The satyr play is a serio-comic dramainvolving a chorus of satyrs — part-human,part-animal followers of Dionysos, the godof wine, emotional release and theatre,” DrO’Sullivan said.“Satyr drama — not to be confused with ‘satire’—comprised about one quarter of the overalloutput of such great dramatists as Aeschylus,Sophocles and Euripides. These satyr playswere written by the tragedians themselves anddealt with the same sorts of heroic myths astragedies, whose grandeur and seriousnessthey often parodied.”Polyphemos represented all things uncivilisedand brutish and was the prototype forcannibalistic ogres found in Jack and theBeanstalk and other folk-tales, said DrO’Sullivan.“Odysseus famously combines cunning,endurance and bravery in his conflict withthe Cyclops. But, typically of satyric drama,his heroic pretensions are lampoonedmore than once by the outlandish figure ofSilenos, the debauched father of the chorusof young satyrs, who ‘enjoy’ with their fathera kind of ‘Steptoe-and-Son’ relationship. Asit is, the satyrs find themselves enslaved byPolyphemos on the harsh and volcanic islandof Sicily and long to be reunited with theirpatron god, Dionysos, through the heroicaction of Odysseus.“Among the main characteristics of satyrsare their lechery, buffoonery, cowardice,drunkenness and overall lack of decorumand sophistication, which frequently workto puncture the pomposity of others aroundthem. These satyric features are in evidencein the play, but at the same time satyrs areimmortal, often on the verge of disaster, butnever quite suffering it; they are closer toNew Pro-Chancellor appointedThe University of Canterbury Councilhas elected Rex Williams to be its nextPro-Chancellor.Mr Williams, who is a Canterbury Universityalumnus, has been a Council member since2005.He has 30 years of management andgovernance experience in New Zealand,Australia and South East Asia. Last year heretired as the Managing Director of Holcim(New Zealand) Ltd.Mr Williams has recently taken up the role ofChairman of the West Coast District HealthBoard. He is a Director of MainPower NewZealand Ltd, an Advisor to HW RichardsonGroup Ltd, and a Trustee of the Water RightsTrust and the Styx Living Laboratory Trust.Mr Williams succeeds retiring Pro-ChancellorJohn Simpson, who has been in the rolesince 2003. At last month’s Council meetingmembers complimented Mr Simpson onhis work as Pro-Chancellor, particularly hisfinancial reporting.Chancellor Dr Robin Mann said he had showngreat commitment to the role and thankedhim for his work.Mr Simpson will continue to serve on theUniversity Council.Dutton piece makes it into NY Times list of top essaysAn opinion piece in the New York Times byUC Associate Professor in Philosophy DenisDutton has been named by the newspaper asone of its best essays for 2007.The article, about musical aesthetics and theplagiarised recordings of the pianist JoyceHatto, was first published last February. It nowfeatures in the New York Times editors’ list ofNotable Op-Eds of the Year for 2007. It is one ofonly 16 contributions to make the list.“I was delighted when the Times published thepiece in the first place,” Professor Dutton said.Dionysos than mere mortals like us and couldeven be paradoxical founts of wisdom andvirtue of sorts.”Dr O’Sullivan said the comic influenceof satyric figures was long and enduring,evident in such later creations ranging fromShakespeare’s Falstaff, and figures fromCommedia dell’ Arte, to the Marx Brothers,Barrie Humphries’ Les Patterson, and Kramerfrom Seinfeld.“And the later notion of the ‘wise fool’ —compare Forrest Gump or Peter Sellers in BeingThere — also has elements traceable to thesatyrs of Greek myth and drama.”Dr O’Sullivan has recently completed acommentary on the play and is also workingon a book on satyric drama. Professor Bondhas more than 20-years experience as an actor/director of ancient Greco-Roman plays, manybased on his own translations.• Euripides’ CyclopsOld Queens Theatre, 120 Hereford StJanuary 29, 31, February 1, 2 at 8pm$15/$10 (unwaged)Bookings: 364 2987 ext. 8879“To have it show up on their Notables list atthe end of the year was a big surprise.”In the article, “Shoot the Piano Player”,Professor Dutton examined the scandalsurrounding the British pianist Joyce Hatto.From 1989 until her death in 2006, Hattorecorded more than 120 CDs including many ofthe most difficult piano pieces ever written. Itwas only after her death that it was discoveredthat every one of her critically acclaimedrecordings made during that period wasstolen, with minor electronic alterations, fromother pianists.