Prometheus Bound and The Frogs (Cambridge)

It only happens every three years – one of the cornerstones of Western theatre, a play in the original ancient Greek mounted by members of Cambridge University's Classics Department. For 2013 director Helen Eastman has selected a double-bill of Prometheus Bound, attributed to Aeschylus, and The Frogs, one of Aristophanes' most enjoyable comedies.

The staging of both is very effective, with a metallic setting for the tragedy and a glorious clutter for the farce. The designer is Neil Irish, abetted by Neill Brinkworth's lighting design. Prometheus is accompanied by a deliberately discordant score composed by Alex Silverman, against which the rebel god (Henry Jenkinson) and his tormenters (Andy Brock and James White) exchange their dialogue in sprechtgesang.

As the chorus of Oceanides flow into the action, all sea-green robes and fluttering sea-birds, the hapless Io (Juliet Cameron-Wilson), tormented by gadflies, also appears. Prometheus' agony is as much mental as physical and Jenkinson does not allow his plight to gain too much of the audience's sympathy. There's a bright sketch of Hermes by Joey Akubeze, who also appears as the weedy Heracles in The Frogs.

For this, Silverman's score is a deliciously rag-bag affair, matched by Irish's modern-dress costumes and some inspired chorus movement, including the acrobatics of Elizabeth Schenk. White is the oh-so-camp Charon and Daniel Unruh (Hephaestus in Prometheus) as Pluto gives us a neat caricature of a certain unruly-haired blond politician.

Máirín O'Hogan is the much-put-upon slave Xanthias, accompanying Charlie Merriman's Dionysus to the underworld and the poets' contest between Euripides (Freddie Crossley) and Aeschylus (Geoffrey Kirkness). Honking away (we even get a finale song-sheet) is a green-clad chorus of the title. If the audience sits for a moment in stunned silence as the curtain falls on Prometheus chained to his rock, it erupts in applause as the frogs belt out their final croaks.