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By Zeus!

Theatre department presents Aristophanes' zany The Birds

"... do not fly in all directions with open beak; it is not dignified."

-- Makemedo in The Birds

The Birds, a play that features hapless birds and disenchanted, wry Greeks, is a comic masterpiece. Aristophanes wrote the play in 414 B.C., shortly after the Athenians launched a major offensive against Sparta. The Birds most likely provided comic relief for war-weary, politics-leery Athenians.

Makemedo and Goodhope, two average Joes frustrated with the craziness in Athens, flee to the countryside, where they join a bunch of birds to build their version of Utopia: Cloudcuckooland.

When Makemedo suggests this grand paradisiacal scheme to Hoopoe, a bird who was once a man, Hoopoe exclaims, "By earth! by snares! by network! by cages! I never heard of anything more cleverly conceived ..."

Makemedo and Goodhope soon sprout wings -- a sight that strikes Makemedo as hilarious.

Makemedo: Halloa! What's this? By Zeus! I never saw anything so funny in all my life.

Goodhope: What makes you laugh?

Makemedo: Your little wings. D'you know what you look like? Like a goose painted by some dauber.

Goodhope replies with one of the all-time greatest comebacks: And you look like a close-shaven blackbird.

Director Cynthia Lammel, Theatre Arts, offered this jaunty report: "Although we sometimes feel bird-brained and our heads are often in the clouds, we are going to take flight with this production!" The Birds plays Nov. 12 - 17 in Wismer Theatre. See calendar for details.

Lisa Kirk