When I was asked to review "the Greek posters" I vaguely envisaged sun, sand, rocks and a few ruins, writes Jeannine Alton.
On discovering that the exhibition was selected from the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, the perspective altered - and much for the better. This is one of Oxford's small beavering enterprises, set up in 1996 to do just what it says: to collect all surviving evidence of ancient drama in performance . . . not as dusty as it may sound. These plays were part of the mindset of the Renaissance, often incorporated into Elizabethan grammar-school teaching and certainly performed in colleges here. There were, naturally, not posters for these early shows! The exhibition covers recent work, 1968-2000, from Greece, Italy, Germany, Japan, Holland and UK. The variety of treatment is fascinating. Some return to the (presumed) original, like the famous mask of Agamemnon for OUDS and also for the National Theatre, or a red-figure Krater for Lysistrata. Others focus on the actor: a Japanese, and a Swedish Medea, or the Northern Broadsides actor Barrie Rutter at the National in 1989. Some are symbolic, notably the Berlin Agamemnon of 1980, directed by Peter Stein, full of snakes, scorpions and doom-laden graphics of Angst, Panik, Rache and Hybris. Germany sweeps the board for sheer quality by using Picasso for Antigone and de Chirico for The Bacchae. Most simply beautiful to me are the woodcut for Antigone at the Camden Round House, and the composition of an actress's tumbling hair, like some archaic Mlisande, for Aeschylus's Suppliant Women. And we mustn't forget the most recent - the revivial of The Island, Athol Fugard's daring two-man version of Antigone at the National in 2000. How to get there? Not easy. Ring Wolfson College Lodge, 274100, and follow instructions, till May 19. Worth it? Yes. The college is new by Oxford standards (1964) but thanks to its charismatic first President, Sir Isaiah Berlin, is lavishly provided with artworks and even a genuine Carrara marble hall. The exhibition itself is fabulously sited overlooking the college lake and the Cherwell, replete with punts.
*Taken from The Oxford Times Weekend section, May 5
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