Talking as I was in the last post of taking culture to children, I went to a discussion at Senate House about the work of Barefaced Greek, who aimed originaly to take ancient greek texts and make short videos for 14-15 year olds, although it seems they have a wider audience now.
They are in the original ancient greek and subtitled, which works surprisingly well. The video above from Women of Troy by Euripides, is a powerful – and current – look at the ravages of war, but also a chilling statement about how the Gods interfere with the lives of men, just as our lives are interfered by forces out of our control, such as bosses, the State, leaders, world events. And apparently there is more to come from Women of Troy, and Aristophanes (yay!).
John and I spoke to the director after, she was really interesting, she works a lot with kids and Greek Theatre. One to watch definitely, and I would love a full film of this – someone give these people funding to do that? Surprised Channel 4 or BBC aren’t all over this, because as she said in the talk, so many things out there for teenagers and beyond to teach Shakespeare, but very little recently about ancient Greek theatre. I certainly would have preferred to learn more about ancient Greece, than the piles of dusty Romans and Middle Ages/Tudors anyday.
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