Drama: a Dramatisation of The Iliad in Cambridge

Projected words by Keats

We had a fascinating time last week in Cambridge last week at the annual Greek play. This year's production was called 'Achilles: the end of his wrath' and constituted a dramatisation from Homer's Iliad (Books XVI-XXIV).

The performance was in Classical Greek and was produced and directed by Emeritus Professor Patrick Boyde, who has now directed ten of these plays.

The performance took place in the Cambridge University Divinity School Theatre, pictured above. There were not only projected subtitles (for those of us whose Greek is a bit rusty), but also carefully selected images from archaeological artefacts such as figurative pottery, enabling the audience to follow the action a little more easily. The acting was complemented by exquisite music from two accomplished violinists. 

Unlike the levels of gratuitous noise in movies like Troy, you could have heard a pin drop. We were all caught up in the plot and were drawn in not only to the stark horrors of the war, but also to the very real issues facing the gods, the heroes and the humans. And what an experience it was!   

I read a child's version of the Odyssey as a youngster, and have been fascinated by Odysseus and the nature of the Homeric epic ever since. The images below are reconstructions from Nestor's Palace near 'sandy Pylos', which features in the Odyssey. We visited the site a couple of years ago. The image immediately below shows a reconstruction of the palace floor (complete with octopus motif) from the museum, and the lower image shows a reconstruction of the palace itself.    

Magazine Moment (8): Cultural Horizon Magazine (Romania)

'Horizons?
If not horizons,
then at least a few cracks
through which light pierces'

Maria Dolores Garcia Pastor
on writing her novel (details below)

I was delighted to receive a package from Bucharest, Romania this week. It contained the latest copy of 'Contemporan Orizont Literar'/'Cultural Horizon Magazine' [Annul III - Nr. 1 (15)/January- March 2010]. The publishing concern responsible for the venture is a media partner of MTTLC at the University of Bucharest. Magazine editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu, and his team of translators do a terrific job in producing a publication that is largely bilingual, always thought-provoking and refreshingly global in outlook.

The current issue contains features and poems from many corners of the world, for example...

Romania
The opening article, 'Eminescu and Postmodernism' by Daniel Dragomirescu considers the impact of the hugely influential Eminescu on those who followed him, and on the contemporary poetry scene in Romania. But what of the future? Dragomirescu raises some concerns. Eminescu's 'Evening Star' found its way in to the Guinness Book of Records as the longest love poem in the world. Readers will not be surprised to learn that the gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, also appears in the 2009 edition of this popular volume.

Nigeria
We move from Romania to Africa for Abiola Olatunde's feature on the theatre in Nigeria, which is, she writes, 'on the wane' at a time when interest in film and video is soaring.

UK
I enjoyed Anne Stewart's poem, 'Winter Loving', prefaced with an epigraph from Elizabeth Jennings. Stewart's image of the 'whale-song of the trees' is one that will stay with me.

USA
Peggy Landsman the in USA shares an update on her first full-length poetry collection and on a subsequent chapbook. Watch this space!

Spain
This edition of CHM comes with a supplement, featuring the Spanish publication, 'El Boletin Del Autor'. There is an interview with Maria Dolores Garcia Pastor, the author of El susurro del los árboles ('The Murmur of Trees'), a novel about Chile. The interview has been conducted by Victor Morata Cortado.

... and back to Romania
Finally, there is the text of an enlightening conversation in the Dialouri Culturale/Cultural Dialogue series, between Professor Lidia Vianu and Mrs Ioana Ieronim, former students in the Pitar Moş English Department. I supplemented my postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) with a TEFL qualification (back in the 1980s), with a view to teaching English in international contexts - and was fascinated to read Professor Vianu's memories of her time as a student and later as a teacher of English. She speaks about her best-selling work, English as a Key (Teora 1993/2005/2006/2008). Professor Vianu recalls a period during her student days when she experienced 'a desperate hunt for books'. I would like to think that books will somehow continue to be widely treasured as tools of learning in university circles and beyond...

Why not visit the CHM site: you will find out a bit more about the current state of international culture - from a Romanian perspective!

• The Eminescu exhibition in the Romanian Parliament Palace
• On the subject of Welsh Dialogues/Dialoguri Galeze, you may like to know that Byron Beynon's latest book, 'Nocturne in Blue' (Lapwing Press) has just been published. I attended a launch at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, Wales, last Friday.