Socrates and His Clouds begins tonight, June 4, at Jermyn Street Theatre. With Alexander Andreou (National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange) as Socrates, Paul Hutton as Strepsiades (Mack & Mabel Southwark Playhouse), and Jack Montgomery (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins), as Phidippides, this modern day re-interpretation of a classic Greek comedy will also feature Riana Athanasiou, Lucyelle Cliffe and Rahil Liapopoulou as The Chorus.
Greece ... Europe ... A nation and a continent in crisis ... money always comes first and people are left to deal with the rest.
Into the arena steps Strepsiades. He owes money. A lot of money. And that's because his son, Phiddy, has a penchant for betting and isn't so keen on working. Streps has no way out. At a loss, he has a brainwave: Phiddy can go to Socrates' Academy! There he can learn the ways of the world, how things work and most of all how to talk himself out of trouble! The perfect solution to a terrible problem. Job done! What could possibly go wrong? ...
Aristophanes meets comic strip in Socrates and his Clouds - a bawdy, slapstick tale of what happens when ethics and education aren't part of the equation in a society where money makes the rules. Suffused with song and dance, the work is an exuberant but piercing study of the ways in which education and morality define a society in crisis.
This world premiere by award-winning playwright
William Lyons is brought to the stage by a team of young, emerging Greek-Cypriot and Greek theatre makers in collaboration with other
International Artists. At a time when Greece and Cyprus are coming under unrelenting attack on all fronts, this production acts as an active dialogue between the ancient heritage of the Hellenistic world and contemporary Greek and European cultures.
William Lyons's play Wittgenstein-The Crooked Roads won the START Chapbooks Award 2005 and was presented at
Riverside Studios in London in 2011 ('grabs philosophical enquiry by the shoulders and gives it a good shake. This is a show brimming with ideas.' The Londonist - London Evening Standard.) Its companion piece, The Fir Tree and the Ivy, won the Eamon Keane Full Length Play Award in 2006 and has been translated into Italian as L'Edera e l'Abete.
Melina Theocharidou directed the UK premiere of Pamela! The Musical for Lost Theatre One Act Festival ('Clever lyrics by Sarah Underwood, cheeky music by Olivios Karaolides, whirled merrily on in Melina Theocharidou's direction.' Jeremy Kingston, The Times.) and the World Premieres of Elle A Live and Unplugged for the Shaw Theatre and The Hospital Club in London and Södra Teatern in Stockholm ('a beautiful piece of theatre, full of originality' Etta Cascini, Sipario), Princess for the Camden Fringe Festival and STOFF in Stockholm ('Director Melina Theocharidou pulls the whole together with tremendous skill', Camden Voyeur), Enarxis for Satiriko Theatre in Cyprus, Dream for Theatre Underground at Brunel Museum and Red in the Forest at Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden. She is a member of the
Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab 2012.
www.melinatheo.com
Socrates and his Clouds follows Anthony Biggs' production of
Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval in April and Marshall and Cole's production of And in The End - The Death and Life of
John Lennon in May.
THE MEDDLERS THEATRE COMPANY in association with Jermyn Street Theatre presents the world premiere of SOCRATES AND HIS CLOUDS by
William Lyons inspired by Aristophanes. Directed by Melina Theocharidou with designs by Katerina Angelopoulou, the show will run today, 4 - 22 June. Press Night is 6 June 7.30pm. Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday 7.30 pm; Saturday and Sunday Matinees 3.30pm. Extra matinees 13 June and 20 June 3.30pm. Tickets: £18 (concessions and groups £15); Early Bird Discount: £14 (if booked before May 1). Box office 0207 287 2875 and online at
www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk.
For more about the production, visit
www.socratesandhisclouds.com, Twitter: @socandhisclouds #SocandhisClouds or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socrates-and-his-Clouds/519319188118452?fref=ts.
