The Frogs

All year I’ve been reading one of the Little Black Classics each week, with different levels of success. Going into The Frogs, I has no idea what to expect.

It turned out to be a play (I like plays), and as such a Greek comedy. I’ve in school studied some Greek theater, but these were always the famous tragedies. So, I was very glad to see a comedy that also survived the times.

Dionysus is looking for a poet in order to motivate the Athenians but unfortunately al good playwrights have died, so he has to travel to the underworld and fetch one. When he arrives he happens upon both Euripides and Aeschylus who are fighting over who is the better poet. Dionysus will have to make the decision.

The play is silly. But so are all (good) comedies. I have to say I liked reading it a lot. It had a modern feel to it (for as far as possible, because the Chorus remains a strange thing to me), with fourth-wall-breaks and a commentary on plays in general I would almost consider post-modern. What also helped, I’m sure, is that the translation felt modern. (I’m wondering how much of the original the translator sacrificed for readability).

Either way, it was a witty play with a Chorus of Frogs, and I was thinking, if they are putting on this play, I would definitely like to see it.