The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus
[1][2] It is partially based on Ichneutae, a satyr play by the fifth-century BC Athenian dramatist Sophocles, which was found in fragments at the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus.
[6] The play had a one-performance première on 12 July 1988 in the ancient stadium of Delphi,[7] Greece with a follow-up performance at the Royal National Theatre two years later on 27 March 1990.
[8][9][10][11] The 1988 premiere at Delphi starred Jack Shepherd as Grenfell, Barrie Rutter as Hunt and Juliet Stevenson in the role of the mountain nymph Kyllene.
[8] The satyrs finally find the cattle only to discover that the cows are also keeping amongst them baby Hermes who although an infant has just invented the lyre.
Having lost their chance to get involved in "High Art" the satyrs rebel and 2500 years later they become hooligans coming out of the crates and destroying the very papyrus to which they owe their existence in modern times.
[8] Richard Eyre calls The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, which features satyrs jumping out of box crates clog dancing, "among the five most imaginative pieces of drama in the 90s".
[17] Punch magazine writes that "Despite its jawbreaking title, The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus is a very merry and mischievous play, which turns serious and even harrowing, not through any visual violence but in the unnerving poetry of Tony Harrison".
But what's much worse isbeing resurrected with scarcely half my verses.Converted into dust and bookworm excretariddled lines with just a ghost of their metre.In a critique contained in the book Tragedy in Transition it is mentioned that Harrison's play with its chaotic, lively, dynamic and sometimes fragmented verses, to match the condition of the papyri, contrasts with the stilted coverage of classics during the Edwardian era.
In that sense, Harrison continues, the satyr plays precipitated a "spirit of celebration" into the dramatic festival which also caused a "release into the worship of Dionysus".
[9] According to the same book, with his Trackers, Harrison wants to criticise the tendency of the elitists and right-wing politicians to divide art and society along refined and popular lines, represented by separate Apollonian and Dionysiac camps.
[8] T. P. Wiseman remarks that Harrison has "opened up the possibilities" of an ancient Greek play which was until recently the exclusive domain of scholars specialising in the classics.
It was directed by Jimmy Walters in a joint venture with his company Proud Haddock and Neil McPherson at the Finborough Theatre.
