Full-blooded music swells. A cast of thousands mills about in the background as the credits roll. Thus it was with the wide-screen epic films of the 1960s. Magdalen College School Theatre Academy’s production of The Aeneid opened in much the same way, with luxuriant orchestral music and a big crowd filling the Playhouse stage. Director Joanne Pearce adapted Virgil’s poem herself, starting as Aeneas is cast ashore at Carthage in Book 1, and ending with Book 6, when he reaches Italy. Not for nothing did MCSTA subtitle their version The Journey: it took two hours to reach the interval, placed at the end of Book 4 — too long, I fear, for less well-disciplined classical scholars among us.

With over 50 named parts, at times it was difficult to work out who was who, and to keep track of storyline details. But Pearce and designer Jacob Hughes provided a spectacle worthy of a production at the National Theatre. Particularly effective touches included blocks of actors swaying to and fro in disciplined unison to represent the rough sea as Aeneas approached Carthage, and a large-scale race staged for Book 5, The Games — complete with two bemused penguins looking on. The set featured two huge, revolving ramps, which could each be moved independently, to provide ever-changing backdrops. And, of course, there was a massive Trojan horse.

“I will always know what you are doing,” Dido (Kate Apley) assured Aeneas, after greeting him with a radiant smile and a very passionate welcome. Dido was one of a number of strong female characters, who certainly held their own among the hoards of men. In the two principal roles, Dominic Henry (Aeneas) and Conor Diamond (Poet) put many a professional actor to shame in their mastery of the tricky Playhouse acoustic. This was an epic journey indeed, but it was well acted, and staged with often gobsmacking flair and imagination.