The Aquila Theatre Company, founded in London by Peter Meineck, has won both critical and academic acclaim world wide having toured extensively throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. Now based in New York, the company continues to present classical texts with innovation and creativity.

On Saturday the company performed ‘The Wrath of Achilles' based on books 16 - 19 of Homer's Iliad. The company also gave a pre-performance talk covering the historical background to the ancient piece of literature, which before being assembled and recorded, had been part of a tradition of oral storytelling passed on by bards who would invest the recounting with relevant topical references.

Following that tradition Aquila's production, adapted by Peter Meineck from Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Iliad and directed by Robert Richmond, is set in World War II with the story, told and performed by a group of soldiers, being picked up in the ninth year of the Trojan war, chronicling the death of Achilles' beloved companion Partroclus at the hands of Hector and Achilles' all-consuming sense of loss, hatred and anger.

The performance began with a silhouetted man in a trench coat walking on a dark stage, followed by two lovers running in slow motion only for the young man to be carried off by soldiers and fitted with fatigues, ending up dead in simulated battle.

The set was minimalist, consisting of black plastic trunks ingeniously employed to create everything from barricades, walls, rocks, and terrain to Mount Olympus.

Simple magenta and white lighting, mostly from overhead was utilised, the spare lighting not adequately lighting the faces of the actors. Reminiscent of the ancient performances when masks were employed, this allowed the audience to concentrate on the words of the epic poem and the very effective movement.

Props consisted entirely of the gear of the soldiers. A black helmet one moment became a chalice to pour libations to the God Zeus the next, then utilised with another to create breasts, which, with the help of a blanket and

some webbing, transformed one figure into the hilariously low-slung Goddess Hera.

Throughout the performance the tragic results of war were driven home, the relatively young cast underlining specifically the loss of young life associated with war. The subplot of the wonderfully flawed gods supplied welcome comedic relief.

The repeated use of foggy slow-motion vignettes and swirling music added a strong cinematic element to the lingeringly haunting production.

A lovely contrast to the intense soaring music was the repeated acappella singing of an elegiac hymn in Greek after depictions of death and burial.

Aquila's ‘Wrath of Achilles' is a truly innovative and potent theatrical achievement combining all aspects of the timeless art of storytelling with resonant visual imagery to relate a portion of a great classic piece of literature in a way that feels modern and relevant.