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On hearing, seeing or reading current events one is bombarded with news that would need one's compassion. Time for reflection is needed, but the next news item and then the next practical task await attention. The horrendous impact has to wait until later. Ovid's myths have forced me to take time and look at some of them. I believe the analytically trained mind can help. The theatre too has power to influence. Given power, artist and writers may act in politics and over time achieve choice, compromise or resolution of conflict.
The London performance of ten Tales from Ovid at the Young Vic drew me to Waterloo on a hot summer afternoon in 2000. The theatre in the round was mostly black and dark. The stage was covered in white sand, a piece of shiny plastic in the middle and a well to one side. Smoke was coming from behind broken walls. Put a rope down on the plastic and you have the pool of Narcissus, when required. Five myths on either side of the interval smoothly followed each other with transformations of the stage in front of our eyes. One's imagination was assisted by joyful music, speech, deafening thunder and dramatic silences.
To start with, the mood was playful. The actors of the Royal Shakespeare