This play by Aeschylus, in a version by David Greig, opens in Greek style with the libation - or offering of thanks - by a representative of Southwark council. She described the financing of the staging and ended by emptying a bottle of red wine across the front of the stage.
The play is unusual by having the Chorus as the main focus. Unusually again, the chorus was made up of local amateurs who had been trained for their role as a group of women who had fled from Egypt to Argos where they ask king Pelasgos for asylum. They are trying to get away from the enforced and unwelcome marriages that they would have to suffer at home. The King, after due deliberation and a referendum, agrees to take them in. However, they are pursued by the men of Egypt. After a confrontation, they are seen off by the king and all seems to end happily.
This is the first play of a trilogy but the other two were lost apart from a fragment that is read at the beginning. It lauds the penetration of the earth by the rain of the sky to give the abundance of life on earth.
The play only lasts ninety minutes and is thoroughly engaging with a musical accompaniment to the rhythmically delivered text.
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