Euripides' Orestes: an OALS production
27-30 November 2024, O 'Reilly Theatre, Keble College Oxford
Reprised 22 June, Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury
This production, a unique collaborative project led by the Oxford Ancient Languages Society, staged a complete dramatic recreation of Euripides’ play, demonstrating the vivid dramatic fruits of meticulous, interdisciplinary scholarship.
It was performed entirely in the original Ancient Greek (with English surtitles), with authentic costumes and masks. Crucially, it restored Euripides’ drama to its full musical glory. All the sections of the play that were originally sung were set to music, newly composed in the ancient Greek modes, using all available evidence about Euripidean music, and incorporating an ancient fragment of music from the play that may be by Euripides’ own hand.
The chorus and our talented solo singers were accompanied on the aulos (ancient double-pipes) by the renowned aulete Callum Armstrong, resulting in a transformative audience experience, closer than ever to the Athenian stage.
A full recording of this sell-out production can be found here.
We have also created a short introductory video explaining what makes this production so exciting and offering a window into its creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBYA98soukA
And a longer version of the latter, which forms a short documentary that discusses in more detail the academic and artistic processes behind the production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqaZUsvwwWM
Read more about the play in these three articles by the director!
https://antigonejournal.com/2025/03/oals-recreating-euripides-orestes/
https://antigonejournal.com/2025/03/making-sense-of-euripides-orestes/
https://antigonejournal.com/2025/03/setting-euripides-to-music/
And take a look at the Oxford performance's programme on our blog!
In Argos, Orestes, with the help of sister Electra and their friend Pylades, has committed the worst crime imaginable: he has killed his own mother, in vengeance for her murder of his father, and is now tormented by the Furies. But what will happen next? Can Orestes and Electra escape death at the hands of the Argives, who see them more as criminals than as heroes? And can they rely on the help of their uncle Menelaus, who has just returned from Troy with his wife, the much-despised Helen?
As the play unfolds, we are forced ourselves to face some difficult questions: are Orestes and his friends in fact heroes or criminals? How far can the heroic ethic stretch before it becomes little more than self-parody? And above all, can we even attach a meaning to this vivid high drama?
The Orestes is one of the most exciting of Euripides’ plays, and the most popular in antiquity. It displays the height of his dramatic innovation, and—rarely for Greek tragedy—while its characters and framework are drawn from traditional mythology, the plot itself is entirely Euripides’ invention.
Directed by Nicholas Romanos
Producer: Kelly Yu
Associate Director: Elspeth Rogers
Assistant Director: Angela Yu
Stage Manager: Älvi Lindborg-Koh
CAST:
Orestes: Althea Sovani
Electra: Eleanor McIver
Pylades: Maxwell Drew
Phrygian: Peregrine Neger
Menelaus: Alexandre Guilloteau
Tyndareus: Aron Szocs (Canterbury performance: George Doxiadis)
Messenger: Jialin Li
Helen: Ivana Kuric (Canterbury performance: Ashby Neterer)
Hermione: Josephine Krupa (Canterbury performance: Elizabeth Ogle)
Apollo: Jonathan Nathan
CHORUS:
Nicholas Romanos (Chorus leader)
Cooper Ackerly
Matthias Erbacher
Dimitar Dimitrov
Krasimir Ivanov
Beth Parker
Christian Sanders
Dorothea Shaw
Abigail Sleep
Mark Tomov (ἠσθένει)
Alexandre Trébuchon
Carole Tucker
Leon Wirtz
Angela Yu
Kelly Yu
MUSIC
Nicholas Romanos
Beth Parker
With aulos part composed and played by Callum Armstrong.
TEXT EDITING
Nicholas Romanos
Paige Crawley
Merten Wiltshire
Maxwell Drew
COSTUMES/MASKS
Research: Lucy French, Adam Rosengarten, Samuel Forrest
Costume design: Lucy French
Costume making: Carol Romanos
Mask design and making: Jacinta Hunter, assisted by William Ingham
With thanks to Reading Ancient Schoolroom for the Phrygian’s shoes.
SET/PROPS
Research: Nathaniel Denton
Design/sourcing: Ferne Burrell, Nathaniel Denton
Torches: Benjamin Atkinson
CHOREOGRAPHY
Christine Zhao
Beth Parker
Nicholas Romanos
LIGHTING
Isabelle Carey-Young
SUBTITLE OPERATION
Paige Crawley
Eliza Dean
