The wasps

Presented for the first time in 422 BC, in the context of the Peloponnesian War, and wrote by an Aristophanes already firmly positioned in the Athenian comic landscape, the comedy The wasps seeks to test the various aspects of comic, between tradition and novelty, and must be understood as a reaction to the disappointment of the non-recognition of the merit of the comedy presented in the previous year, The clouds. In the common setting outside a house in Athens, Aristophanes seeks to satirize the malfunction of democratic institutions, mainly focusing on the courts, which represent, in the person of Philocleon and the choir itself, an obsession of the older citizens, who only find there their source of income. Recreating in scene a domestic court, where the accused and the accused of are two dogs – representative of two politicians of the limelight, well known at the time – at every step, the corruption that dominates the legal institutions is evident.

Translation: Carlos A. Martins de Jesus

Wardrobe: Luisa de Nazaré Ferreira and Maria Valente

Musical composition: José Luís Brandão

Musical selection: Carlos Jesus

Sound: Carla Cerqueira

Lights: Rodolfo Lopes and Carlos Santos

Stage design: Carlos Santos, José Luís Brandão and Carla Braz

Cast

José Luís Brandão (Philocleon)

Carlos Jesus (Bdelycleon)

Artur Magalhães (Xanthias)

Susana Bastos (Sosias and Mirtia)

Carla Correia (Dardanis)

Ângela Leão (Dog Cidateneus)

Bruno Fernandes (corypheus)

Chorus: Mariana Matias; Ândrea Seiça; Nélson Henriques; Carla Rosa; Nilce Carvalho; Susana Rosa Leão; Amélia Álvaro de Campos; Miguel Sena; Ália Rodrigues; Carla Braz; Verónica Fachada