From December 9th to the 12th The Classics Department of the University of Canterbury is to present a production of Robin Bond’s new translation of the fifth century BC Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound. Robin is also directing the production, which will take place at Old Queens Theatre at the SW corner of Herford and Colombo Streets.

For many years the Prometheus Bound was attributed to Aeschylus, but modern scholarship will have it that this attribution is not correct. Be that as it may, this powerful play has become one of the most influential pieces of ancient drama in its impact upon the whole western tradition of art, literature and philosophy. One play surviving from a trilogy, the piece depicts the initial crucifixion of the culture hero, the Titan, Prometheus, on an icy mountain top in the Caucasus. He is punished in this way by the new-come ruler of the gods, Zeus, for having given the divine and civilizing power of fire to mere creatures of a day, to mortal men.

Prometheus is the archetypal tragic hero, noble and generous, yet also stubborn, proud and self-willed and punished for what his detractors and even his allies consider to be a fatal mistake, an excess of kind heartedness towards humankind. On his mountain peak Prometheus is visited in turn by a Chorus of sympathetic daughters of Okeanos, by the elder statesman Okeanos himself, intent on trying, though unsuccessfully, to heal the rift between Prometheus and Zeus, by Io, a human girl, the object of Zeus’ lust and so a fellow victim with Prometheus of Zeus’ uncontrolled emotions and, finally, by Hermes, Zeus’ messenger and lackey who threatens Prometheus with further dire punishment should he refuse to divulge what secret knowledge he possesses about the cosmic future and the threat to the rule of Zeus.

Through time Prometheus has been identified as a culture hero, to whom the figure of Maui provides a Polynesian parallel, as a romantic hero, the rugged individual confronting the hostile forces of nature and, indeed, as a Marxist hero, upholding and defending the rights of the common man. He is all and more than these things and the play, at once static and strangely dynamic, explores matters metaphysical and political and ethical which still resonate today in language at once grand and rhetorical, but compelling and clear.

The production will be presented by masked actors all of whom are either present or past members of the staff and student body of the University of Canterbury, with Gene Banyard in the title role. An impressive set has been designed and built by Richard Till. Movement coach, choreographer and producer is dancer Kate Hamilton, while music and sound effects are courtesy of Michael Summerfield and Nick Lynch.

Prometheus Bound
Old Queens Theatre at the SW corner of Herford and Colombo Streets
Wednesday Dec. 9 to Saturday Dec.12
$15.00(waged), $10.00 (unwaged).
Door sales

Dramatis Personae
Prometheus:  Gene Banyard
Hephaistos:  Isaac Freeman
Might:  James Milliken
Violence:  Sam Bonifacio
Okeanos:  Jim Tully
Io:  Tracy Scarrott
Hermes:  Dylan James
Chorus:  Kate Hamilton, Margaret Burrell, Helen Debenham, Rose Whitau, Amy Shirtliff and Chontelle Tuck.

Crew
Set:  Richard Till
Masks:  Vanessa Smith
Costumes:  Wendy Jagers and Cast
Lights:  Richard Jones
Music:  Michael Summerfield and Nick Lynch
Producer / Choreography:  Kate Hamilton