By Rebecca Spence, Arts Editor
The King’s Theatrical Society is kicking off its fall season this week with a performance of Agamemnon by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. In keeping with tradition, the show is to take place on the steps outside of the King’s College library. So attendees might want to consider bringing a blanket and a thermos of hot chocolate, depending on the weather.
“(The quad) is one of my favourite theatre spaces at King’s. I wish we could do more stuff out there,” says Bethany Hindmarsh, the show’s director. “The setting has a wonderful feel. I love it.”
The text of the play is heavy with themes of retribution, free will versus fate, and an-eye-for-an-eye justice. The tragedy follows the story of Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek armies at the siege of Troy, who is finally coming home after fighting for the past ten years. Meanwhile, his wife is plotting his death as revenge for his murder of their daughter before he left.
“She never forgave him,” says Hindmarsh. “And it unveils this whole cycle of revenge.”
Hindmarsh, a third-year classics student, began working on the pre- production for this show during the summer. She was attracted to Agamemnon partly because she was interested in exploring a number of powerfully images that are apparent in the script. She also chose it because there is so little dialogue in the play.
“It’s almost all monologue, and so it really lends itself to working almost as a soundtrack in the sense that we have characters of the story coming forward to narrate the section of the story they see as their own,” says Hindmarsh.
Hindmarsh, 20, has a background in classical theatre of this nature, having performed in Antigone in her first year at King’s. She emphasizes the importance of involving first-year students in the classics productions, as it ensures that they are introduced to the KTS early on in their university experience. In Agamemnon, first-year students play all of the lead roles. In total, the cast consists of 23 actors, and 19 of them are
first-year students. Although Hindmarsh has put
countless hours into preparing to direct the show, she and her actors have less than four weeks to put together a performance that would ideally take two to four months to produce. But she doesn’t seem to be too worried.
“Watching the actors make this play their own has been exciting for me,” says Hindmarsh. “The creative job isn’t mine anymore. It’s theirs. It’s between them and the text.”
David Etherington, the show’s producer and the vice-president of the KTS, is also working hard to support Hindmarsh in her vision. He encourages all members of the Halifax community, not just King’s students, to come out and watch what will be the only classical play of the year.
“You don’t have to have studied these plays for them to speak to you,” he says. “The language can speak to anyone.”
The show, which is free of charge, is set to take place on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 6:00 p.m. The setting is sure to be beautiful, so long as the gods bless the cast with clear skies.
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