Event

The Wasps

"Classic Greek geek chic...GO!" - LA Weekly

Originally commissioned to reopen The Getty Villa, Meryl Friedman has reimagined Aristophanes' THE WASPS to delirious affect.

Aristophanes has been called "The Father of Burlesque," which makes him the forerunner to the wellspring of the American comic tradition that had given us everything from Burns & Allen, The Marx Brothers, and Milton Berle, all the way to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld: Vaudeville!

At a brisk 85 minutes, Meryl Friedman's THE WASPS makes the most of this connection in a madcap mix of high and low brow humor, a confection that plays like one immense joke in action.

David O, noted composer (A Map of Los Angeles, for The L.A. Master Chorale) and arranger, reprises his role as Musical Director in a rare on stage appearance.

The cast includes multiple winners and nominees of Ovation and LA Weekly awards: John Apicella, Robert Alan Beuth, Mark Doerr, Hubert Hodgin, Albert Meijer, Steve Totland and Peter Van Norden.

THE WASPS Synopsis: In ancient Greece the state would pay the pensioned off old men a little bit of money to sit on juries, fueling their self-importance and effectively buying their allegiance to the State. These men came to be called wasps for the stinging severity of their verdicts. One son of such a wasp wants his reluctant father, who loves his job and loves the state, to get out of the jury business and so establishes a court of law at home where the old man must adjudicate the case of his own dog who may be guilty of having stolen a piece of cheese an unimaginable dilemma.