On the HahaFiction shelf
Glorious Exploits
Audiobook available · 8 hr 14 min
In Syracuse in 412 BC, unemployed potters Lampo and Gelon decide to stage Euripides' Medea with Athenian prisoners held in a quarry. They need actors, food to keep the cast alive and an audience in a city hostile to the men performing. Their enthusiasm for theater has led them into the aftermath of a disastrous invasion.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Blackly funny and totally original.”Read the full description at Emma Alpern, New York Magazine, quoted by Henry Holt
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What makes it funny?
Lampo spends money meant to feed the cast on his own appearance. His vanity turns an ordinary production headache into a particularly bad decision when the actors are starving prisoners. In the opening, his cheerful boasting also gives Gelon plenty to interrupt.
The comedy at work
Lampo tells this ancient story in a breezy, profane modern Irish voice. His self-importance makes for a running argument with the more attentive Gelon, while the practical work of putting on a play keeps exposing the distance between artistic ambition and looking after other people.
Try this if…
Friendship tested through amateur theater is a strong reason to choose this. Readers who welcome modern speech in an ancient setting can follow the pair's banter and production troubles without expecting a solemn reconstruction of classical life.
Good to know
The theatrical venture grows darker. Starvation, profanity and the consequences of war remain present beneath the friends' enthusiasm and jokes.
A few distinguishing details
- Two unemployed potters cast war prisoners in Medea
- Ancient Sicily narrated in a profane modern Irish voice
More funny historical
Sources & further reading
- Kirkus review
Review
- Publisher’s opening sample
Publisher
- Author
Author commentary
- Unabridged audiobook edition
Book information
- US publisher and excerpt
Publisher
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