This book traces the international performance history of Aristophanic comedy, and its implication in aesthetic and political controversies, from 421 BC to AD 2007. It includes Brechtian experiments in East Berlin, and musical theatre from Gilbert and Sullivan to Stephen Sondheim. Acknowledgements ix List of Illustrations x List of Contributors xvi Introduction: Aristophanic Laughter across the Centuries 1(30) Edith Hall PART I: PRECEDENTS 31(62) The Ups and Downs of Aristophanic Travel 32(20) Ewen Bowie Aristophanes in Early Modern England 52(14) Matthew Steggle The English-Speaking Aristophanes, 1650-1914 66(27) Edith Hall PART II: EXCURSUS: PUBLICATION AS PERFORMANCE 93(42) Publication as Intervention: Aristophanes in 1659 94(12) Rosie Wyles Revolutionary Aristophanes? 106(11) Charalampos Orfanos Aristophanes' Wealth and Dalpatram's Lakshmi 117(18) Phiroze Vasunia PART III: REVIVAL TO REPERTOIRE 135(96) Aristophanes Revitalized! Music and Spectacle on the Academic Stage 136(19) Amanda Wrigley From Scandal to Success Story: Aristophanes' Birds as Staged by Karolos Koun 155(24) Gonda Van Steen The Use of Masks in Koun's Stage Interpretations of Birds, Frogs, and Peace 179(15) Angeliki Varakis `Aristophanes is Back!' Peter Hacks's Adaptation of Peace 194(15) Bernd Seidensticker Sondheim Floats Frogs 209(22) Mary-Kay Gamel PART IV: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 231(112) Freeing Aristophanes in South Africa: From High Culture to Contemporary Satire 232(15) Betine Van Zyl Smit Aristophanes' Peace on the Twentieth-Century French Stage: From Political Statement to Artistic Failure 247(8) Malika Bastin-Hammou Poetry and Politics, Advice and Abuse: The Aristophanic Chorus on the Italian Stage 255(12) Martina Treu A Poet without `Gravity': Aristophanes on the Italian Stage 267(9) Francesca Schironi A Version of The Birds in Two Productions 276(11) Sean O'Brien Translating/Transposing Aristophanes 287(22) Michael Silk Aristophanes in Translation before 1920 309(34) Vasiliki Giannopoulou Bibliography 343(34) Index 377