800-448-7469 Mon-Fri 8:30am - 5:00pm CST

Cart

Ship times are not guaranteed. Learn More.

Same Day Shipping [+]

ALL

All

By Title By Author By Page

Browse

One Act Plays Full Length Plays Musicals Musicals with Accompaniment CDs Collections Scenes and Monologues

Discover

Livestream Titles Digital Scripts New In Print 1-Person Plays Radio Plays Bestsellers Holiday Children's Favorites Competition Titles AATE Award Recipients

Authors

Resources

Logo Packs Books

Help

Livestreaming FAQs Digital Script FAQs Licensing and Royalties Producing a Play 101 Producing a Musical 101 Cutting & Special Permissions 101

About Us

Updated To Kill A Mockingbird Statement About DPC Contact DPC Conferences Affiliates

Home > Browse > The Birds

The Birds

An acting arrangement by Walter Kerr. Based on the comedy by Aristophanes.

Product Code: B56000

Full-length Play

Cast size: flexible.

Rights and availability

This title can be licensed and sold throughout the World.

* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.

Apply for rights

Save for later

Synopsis

"The intention," Walter Kerr writes, "has been to make the play sound as it might have sounded to an average Athenian sitting in a popular comic theatre." As Kerr, describes the work: The Birds (414 B.C.) was Aristophanes' first Utopian play. In this instance, he has his 'comedy team' leave Athens, fed up with the frauds and bores of that society, in an effort to found a better society among the birds. To do so, they must first locate Epops, King of the Birds, who was once a man like themselves and who might be expected to know both sides of the problem. How they find him and what they persuade him to do is the body of the play. The first act concerns the founding of Cloud Cuckooland and its triumph over all earthly quacks. The second concerns its triumph over the polytheistic absurdities to which Athenian religion had been reduced.

Read an Excerpt

Details

Status In stock
Type of Show Full-length Play
Product Code B56000
Minimum Cast Size 12
Pages of Dialogue 63
Min. Royalty Rate $90.00/perf
Approx. Run Time 80 min
Staging One ext. set.

Customer Reviews

Great play, allowing creative staging and costuming and a flexible cast. A fabulous introduction to classic Greek comedy, accessible to middle and high schoolers.

Elisabeth Ledwell, Falmouth Academy, Falmouth, Mass.

The play was challenging and highly entertaining. The great educational part of this play is the ability to be highly inventive and creative.

Denina Brown, Douglas County High School, Castle Rock, Colo.

The Birds by Aristophanes, and arranged for the stage by Walter Kerr, is a superb choice for high school theatre as it blends the classical with the contemporary in updating Aristophanes' wit, and blends his hilarious comedy with his thought-provoking social commentary.

Alan Rosenberg, Baltimore City College High School, Baltimore, Md.

A wonderful adaptation that plays well and offers many opportunities for stage business and laughs. Easy for students to understand and perform. A play that is both hilarious and serious in its theme.

Joni DePerno-Zahas, Camden High School, Camden, N.Y.