Visit to Greek Play at Bradfield

disadvantage in the additional difficulty of the medium and it is intended in future to make it slightly more worthwhile for houses to embark on an ensemble.

Some first rate performances were heard including T. M. Day's Bach organ trio sonata, Wilson's Rondo from the Pathetique Sonata, and the Rise's Teleman ensemble.

The Baird Cup was awarded to School House, whose house programme and grading together outclassed the remaining houses. T. M. Day won the Keyboard prize for his organ solo with P. D. Wilson a close second, and J. D. B. Hargreaves won the instrumental, with Day's flute solo out of the running because of his not being able to win two prizes and Mackinder's oboe playing, after only one year's study, showing the most marked improvement during the year.

F.W.

Each year Bradfield produce a Greek play in their open-air theatre. This year, in fact, there were two, the "Choephori" and "Eumenides" of Aeschylus.

The theatre has an atmosphere of its own. Built in Classical style in a secluded hollow, it has eighteen tiers of seats overlooking a circular "orchestra" or stage twenty-five feet across. Behind the stage is a dualpurpose building that can represent either a temple or a palace.

The plays were brilliantly produced and acted, and the fact that the audience, though largely ignorant of what was being said, reacted appropriately was a tribute to this. The "Choephori" tells how Orestes killed his mother in order to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon. In the "Eumenides" we see how he was driven mad by this deed and pursued by the Furies until he was finally absolved by an Athenian court under Pallas Athene. Orestes tackled his part most competently and his action and diction were admirable. He was ably backed by the choruses who really provided the framework for the action. In the first play the chorus was of twelve serving-women who, either singing or chanting, performed some complex choral movements. It was the second chorus however, which was the more impressive. This represented the Furies, dressed in masks and tattered clothes. Although they did not cause the panic that they did in Aeschylus' time, they were impressive in their menaces and their transformation from these foul beings to the "Eumenides" or "Kindly Ones" was a highlight of the play. The choruses were backed by a recorded score in Greek style, played by students from the Royal Academy.

By the end, although perhaps little wiser about the spoken word, we had a very good idea of the atmosphere of the original productions; and because of the bare stone seats, and not, as Mr. Croft would have it, in spite of them, we left feeling a little more civilised.