Princeton University’s Theatre Intime takes a rocked-up trip back to 423 B.C. for this Aristophanes work.
By: Stuart Duncan
The year is 423 B.C. The place is Athens, Greece. It is a morning in late March, and many citizens of the city, about 15,000, are up early. They have dressed in the best tunics and are making their way to the Theater of Dionysus, an amphitheater placed on the south side of the Acropolis, the tallest hill in Athens.
The theater has a semicircular seating space built into the slope of the hill. At the foot of the seating area is a flat, circular space, called the orchestra, where the actors will perform. The people in the audience arrive early, and because they will be there all day, have brought food and wine. The priests of the various religions sit in special seats at the edge of the circle; other dignitaries, such as civic and military officials, will get the first few rows.
Even those sitting in the top row will have no trouble hearing the performers; the acoustics in the amphitheater are so good that a whisper by an actor in the orchestra will carry to the upper reaches. This day has been devoted to comedies, and Athens’ best-known comic playwright will be offering three of his works. We are still years away from his greatest achievement (Lysistrata), but today he will be debuting a new comedy, Clouds. It will surprise the audience, not because it mocks the philosopher Socrates (many of the comic works did that), but for its overall raunchiness and juvenile bathroom and bedroom humor.
Theatre Intime on the campus of Princeton University is reviving the 2,500-year-old Clouds, using a 1991 modern translation by Peter Meineck, who at one time was with the university’s Program in Theater and Dance. If adaptations of Shakespeare can regularly skip centuries and move locations, Aristophanes presumably won’t object.
But the effort is not particularly successful. This version calls for the Greek chorus (by this time the number in the chorus was up to three) to be handled by a rock band, plus four prom-clad young ladies called The Cloudettes. Unfortunately, Intime director Mark Spatt has paid little attention to the acoustics in these spaces. Not a single word from the vocalist can be understood, and two of the women apparently have no idea of the meaning of the words they are spouting.
That leaves the evening in the hands of Andy Hoover, who is playing the country lout, Strepsiades; his preppy son, Pheidippides, played by Michael Stout; and Andy Brown, who plays Socrates with a nice mixture of smug joy and casual arrogance. The barbs and insults fly with abandon, many referring to personages long forgotten. There are some nice performances in secondary roles: Lindsay Locks shifts gender to become an appealing abused creditor. Jonathan Miller makes a successful Intime debut as the embodiment of Socrates’ superior intelligence. His adversary, Jacob Savage, might do better if he slowed down. He sounds as if he is rushing to beat the commercial.
In fact, the entire evening has the feel of a Saturday Night Live skit gone awry.
Clouds continues at the Hamilton Murray Theater, Murray-Dodge Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, through Feb. 28. Performances: Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $12, $10 seniors/faculty/staff, $6 students/children. For information, call (609) 258-1742. On the Web: www.theatreintime.org