Gustavus was recently invaded by a troupe of St. Olaf students. Not just any troupe, but a comedy troupe.

And one comprised of 15 Classics student at that. Led by Anne Groton, a Classics professor at St. Olaf, the St. Olaf Comedy Troupe has spent the last 35 years touring. The Troupe and its tour was sponsored by the St. Olaf Department of Classics.

The troupe toured various colleges and schools across Minnesota before ultimately ending their tour with two performances on their home stage at St. Olaf, in Northfield, MN.

On some days the troupe even performed the play five times, much more than expected.

Gustavus was honored to be one of their last stops on their tour around Minnesota schools and colleges from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota to St. Croix Preparatory Academy in Stillwater, Minnesota.

They may have had a large amount of schools and colleges, but the actual tour itself only lasted from Wednesday, March 7, to Saturday, March 10.

The 15 Classics students from St. Olaf included six First-years, two sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors.

Each has studied, or majored in Classics at some point in their college career.

For the first time in the Troupe’s history they performed a Greek tragedy rather than a Roman one.

The group of Classics students performed Menander’s Dyskolos (“The Crabby Man”). Menander is considered the father of sitcom, from Shakespeare to Seinfeld.

He was a famous playwright from Athens who wrote more than 100 comedies in Greek during his career.

Although many were later translated into Roman by the Plautus and Terence.

Dyskolos won first prize at the Lenaea festival in 316 BCE. It happens to be the only complete play by Menander to have survived the test of time.

It was lost for over a 1000 years and eventually recovered in the late 1950s.

Director Groton described the performance as “What happens when the goat-god Pan brings a city boy, a country girl, and a crabby old man all together? You get a play with a very happy ending!”

“These performances are a hoot! The actors collaborate with the director in adapting the ancient comedy for a modern audience. True to ancient drama, the players engage the audience, and we all get to join in the songs, which are set to well-known tunes and are mainly in English, with a smattering of Latin and ancient Greek thrown in for good measure. As in the ancient plays, set design is simple and portable. Actors change costumes to play different characters, and really ham up the situation comedy. The students are performing for the love of theater – this is not a class assignment” Eric Dugdale, Classics Professor at Gustavus, said.

Dugdale brought the troupe to Gustavus campus and students.

The goal of the performance of Dyskolos was to give students and attendees a modern comedy performance that allowed them to see a classic performed while still recognizing attributes to popular sitcoms on modern television.

Furthermore, “knowledge of Greek [was] not required as the play [was] (mainly) performed in English, but there [were] some great insider puns, punchlines and jokes, and everyone comes away knowing a teeny bit of ancient Greek” Dugdale said.

In the program, provided to me by the director Anne Groton, those attending had the opportunity to learn some ancient Greek.

Some examples of this are: “boulomai” which means “I wish”, “ou boulomai” which means “I do not wish”, “tharrei!” which means “cheer up!”, and “ego, mou, moi, me” which are all versions of “I, me”.

Furthermore, the program provided attendees with an extensive summary of the performance’s plot points.

The program also allowed audience members to get involved. Throughout the troupe’s performance there were five songs that called for audience participation.

Some songs featured a different pair of characters, from Sostratos to Cooks, and others were solos for some of the cast members.

Personally, Dugdale’s favorite part of the performance was the songs, as he said “they are so catchy. And the actors have a habit of using stuffed animals in performances in creative ways, which my two-year old just loves, as do I!”