Japery according to Aristophanes

Political satirical musical/new version

The Greek dramatist Aristophanes is, due to his cutting humour and his courage to criticise without worrying about angering the social ‘elite’ and ‘celebrities’ of his time, rightly considered the grandfather of all satirists. Even though his plays are almost 2400 years old, they are still inspiring in terms of their grandiose social criticism. The best-known and most successful adaptation of his work in this country is the rewriting of ‘The Birds’ by poet Jiří Žáček, which was one of the only Czech theatrical works of satire of the 1980s. At that time Žáček commented on his rather free adaptation of ‘The Birds’ that “if anyone would like to complain that this is now a different play to ‘The Birds’, my answer is that the world has changed somewhat since Aristophanes’ time.” It’s a text which has some historic importance for Brno City Theatre – it was during its production at the National Theatre just before the revolution that director Stanislav Moša and music composer Zdenek Merta met for the first time. They have now returned to the text after its necessary updating and revision in order to once again attempt (Žáček’s words) “to summon the spirit of human slapstick, with its elemental playfulness, plebeian lack of respect and humorous verve.” Because: “The old seems like the new/but it’s only changed its colour/the freeloaders always get together/and sit down at the trough!”