The Golden Ass

Synopsis

An erotic comedy of love and desire. Based on Lucius Apuleius' original The Golden Ass, which C.S. Lewis described as "a strange compound of picaresque novel, horror comic, mystagogue's tract, pornography, and stylistic experiment."

Our Review:

20 August 2002

The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius is the only surviving Latin novel. Much loved by Elizabethan playwrights, it is the major source for Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. Here, Tim Carroll's production of Peter Oswald's stage adaptation makes much of the lewdness of the original source (why was Latin never like this at my school?) and just about manages to hold the audience's interest.

The play tells the story of Lucius, a young man who travels to Hypata, famous for its witches, because he wishes to be transformed into a bird. Instead, he gets turned into an ass and, after a series of cruel mishaps, (anyone who's read Black Beauty or seen Au Hasard Balthazar will know the sort of thing) is transformed by the goddess Isis into a man again.

Oswald's new play has been specially written for the Globe and is included in the Cupid and Psyche season, not least because it contains the story of Cupid and Psyche as narrated by the housekee...

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Latest User Review

Kakoma Mutenda - 6 January 2010:

I first heard this play on BBC radio and instantly fell in love with it. I have been desperately searching for an audio version ever since. If anyone can help me locate a copy I would be eternally grateful. ...

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