San Francisco’s cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater presents the first installation in this season’s Hidden Classics Reading Series, Aristophanes’ The Knights. Full of Aristophanes’ trademark bawdy humor and political satire, The Knights, written in 424 BC, tells the story of two servants who come across an oracle that will change their lives, as well as the life of an honorable but lowly street vendor. Attacking corruption, injustice, and public figures, The Knights reminds us that it’s never a good idea to get on Aristophanes’ bad side.
Aristophanes was a prolific and acclaimed comic playwright in ancient Athens. 11 of his 40 plays have survived intact throughout the ages. These, as well as fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy. Also known as the Father of Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries including Plato and Cleon, who once prosecuted Aristophanes for slandering the Athenian polis; Aristophanes replied with merciless caricatures of Cleon in his subsequent plays, including The Knights. Surviving plays include The Acharnians; The Knights; The Clouds; The Wasps; Peace; The Birds; Lysistrata; Thesmophoriazusae; The Frogs; Ecclesiazusae; and Wealth.
Co-founded in 1999 by theater artists Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present, and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts, and developing new experimental plays. Cutting Ball Theater has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, Magic Theatre, and Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. The company has produced a number of World Premieres and West Coast Premieres, and re-imagined various classics. Recipient of the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts, Cutting Ball Theater earned the Best of SF award in 2006 from SF Weekly, and was selected by San Francisco Magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007.
The event is set to take place on Sunday, September 27 at 1pm at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at Exit on Taylor.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006.
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