"Peace"
Aristophanes / Scales
Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, September 2007
Photo by Rebecca J. Becker
This raucous, politically pointed adaptation of an early Aristophanes play by Portland actor-director-playwright Keith Scales made heavy references to global warming and other contemporary environmental topics.
I played one of a pair of slaves who served partly as emcees/commentators on the action as well as members of the Chorus. Chelsie Kinney and I addressed the audience often about our boss, the hero "Trickyass" (Keith's version of Trygaeus in the original). We were known as Cretinus and Crapinus.
That's Chelsie next to me in the photo; we had worked with Keith just four months before in the Lakewood Theatre Company production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia." In the foreground is veteran Portland actor Johnny Stallings as Hippocrates, a slippery politician.
As with all Classic Greek Theatre productions, "Peace" was staged in an outdoor amphitheater on the campus of Reed College. You can make out tree foliage and a small lake behind us. (The dark green plastic in the middle background was a canopy that covered a changing area for the actors.)
WHAT THEY SAID
"Filling the play with contemporary resonance, Scales and crew generally communicate the spirit if not the exact words of the original.... Chelsie Kinney and David Loftus playfully portray the farmer's loyal slaves, who initiate us into the action at the start." -- Richard Wattenberg, The Oregonian, Sept. 13, 2007