The Gods are laughing. Aristophanes, his life and theatre

Description

As irreverent and bawdy as Aristophanes, but with more accessible humor, this pseudo-biography juxtaposes elements of Aristophanic plays with the activities of contemporaneous people to show how Aristophanes became the father of political satire and why his theatrical innovations are still staples of the contemporary theater. Aristophanes is shown as an artist living on the edge, who uses comedy to mock his enemies and wages a one-man campaign against those Athenians who revel in war and death; he is set off against his son, who wants to write to entertain; a coldly rational Socrates; Cephisophon, the Laurence Olivier of ancient Greece; the dictator, Cleon; and Aristophanes' skeptical mother, who prefers tragedy to comedy. Caution: contains sexual situations.

Runtime

52 min

Subjects

Contributor

Genre

Date of Publication

[2005], c1995

Database

Films on Demand

Direct Link

Similar Films

Kids with cameras
Legacy project. John Weidman in conversation with J. T. Rogers
Drama. Six characters in search of an author. 13
Artist and Influence
Kuwaiti theater director finds modern inspiration in Shakespeare February 24, 2009
What's the Score. Text Analysis for the Actor
Girls on the wall
Interview with Henk Tjon
A Midsummer Night's Dream (in Original Pronunciation)
The news hour with Jim Lehrer. Shakespeare on The news hour
I will refuse to bubble. History and theater as defiance
Hamlet. Critical guide
Places, please!
Work in progress. Nuts and bolts of writing plays
Tony Hall interview on Banyan