n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester

23 Jul 2010

Chester performs

-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

-

Adaptation

4

2

-

Composer: Alex Silverman

A new adaptation of the tale of the 12 Labours of Hercules, written for a family audience and performed in the perfect setting of Chester's Grosvenor Park on a beautifully designed and crafted bespoke stage, also used for Much Ado About Nothing. The traditional Greek Chorus is formed by a group of journalists, complete with trench coats, trilbies, mobile phones and outside broadcasts. They swarm around Hercules and feed on his life in true paparazzi style, misquoting friends and relatives, misinterpreting (no) comments and making the mundane front page news. The 12 strong chorus provides commentary, narrative, set and structure. Its concept is imaginative and its execution masterful. Hercules, the son of Zeus and a mortal mother, has been challenged by Hera (Zeus's goddess wife who hates her husband's illegitimate son with a passion) to undertake 12 impossible tasks - if he succeeds he will be made immortal and a full god, rather than half man, half god. Hera's intention and expectation is that he will fail. Of course, he doesn't. He succeeds with the help of his nephew Iolaus, and ultimately becomes the hero the human race needs.