Classics Club Puts Required Reading on Stage

Long-lost twin brothers, a shrewish wife, a crazy cook, a doddering old man, a lunatic doctor, a nymphomaniacal prostitute, a pack of thugs, a man named Sponge and the Harvard Classical Club cross paths in the Agassiz Theater this weekend in Plautus’ comedy The Menaechmi.

Required reading for Harvard’s Classics concentrators, The Menaechemi has always been one of the most popular of the Roman comedies, inspiring Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the recently revived The Boys From Syracuse and even Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

There’s a reason the Bard imitated Plautus’ work so closely: the play’s plot, characterizations and jokes are undeniably hilarious.

And when it went up in the Agassiz last night, there was a whole new problem: that of translation.

A major goal of the production is to translate the effect Plautus’ Latin version would have had on Roman viewers, eliciting an analougus response from modern viewers. Kimel says he hopes that the costume and the set of stock characters such as the cook, prostitute and doctor will “reflect our own society’s assumptions on the nature of stereotypes.”

According to director David V. Kimel ’05, this performance will keep “original Latin medleys chanted over authentic ancient music,” but subtitles in such scenes will be featured for the non-classics majors.

But most crucial to the effectiveness of the production will be the English translation. A group of Classics concentrators spent much of the fall semester compiling a modernized translation, which producer Ben Watson ’03 and Kimel then edited into a unified whole. The translation—which is being published and will be on sale at performances—is faithful though not literal, making for impressively smooth and effective theater.

That the play has gotten off the ground so well is especially remarkable given that it is a first-time experience for so many on the production board.

Menaechmi will mark Kimel’s directorial debut, and Watson’s first involvement in Harvard theater. All involved say the experience has been challenging but rewarding.

Watson says he’s been impressed by the dedication of “the theater crowd.”

“They’re not even getting paid for it!” he says. “They’re doing it because they love it, and that’s just great!”

The diverse and enthusiastic cast includes five classics concentrators, an Emerson freshman and even two classics professors, Professor Latin Kathleen M. Coleman and Harvard College Professor and Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature R. J. Tarrant.

“It has been great fun being involved in this production,” Coleman says. “Thinking about how to act my tiny part has made me realize how clever and how funny Plautus’ text is.”

Tarrant says he enjoys seeing the talents of students he’s taught.

“Both Menaechmus twins were in a class with me last semester,” he says. “Maybe that explains their zest when they insult and threaten me!”

For others less versed in classical drama, the learning curve has been even greater. Many of the cast members do not speak Latin, so learning the songs in the original language has been difficult. Even for classicists, the unusual meter in which the songs are written has forced them to adjust their typical reading style.

Founded in 1885, the Harvard Classics Club has been producing Roman and Greek drama for more than 100 years.

The 1906 production of the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, held in Harvard Stadium, attracted crowds in the thousands.

In recent times, however, the club went through a period of dormancy, and their last play was produced in the late 1980s.

Hoping to revive the tradition, Watson and Kimel began asking around the Classics department last spring if there was interest in putting on a play. The response was favorable, and roughly two-fifths of concentrators worked on the play.

The success of this production will likely affect the club’s future as well. Some financial support for the show still comes from the Agamemnon Fund left by the 1906 show. And the club hopes alumni will turn up to see this production.

A reception after last night’s performance welcomed former club members, including Bryn Mawr’s Nancy Dersofi, a professor of Italian, who performed in the club’s 1956 production of Oedipus at Colonus.

Members of the club hope for a large and engaged audience. Publicity packets were sent to local schools and classics departments at other colleges, and the classics department office has been barraged with questions about the show.

Kimel, meanwhile, says he looks forward to the audience’s reaction.

“Those shocked by the ribald fruits of our efforts would do well to remember that the Romans did, after all, originate the toga party,” Kimel says.

—The Menaechmi plays on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the Agassiz Theatre