This play, by Anthony Hodson, is a romantic fantasy/comedy set in Ancient Rome. Two children slip away from their slave-girl nurse and, following would-be robbers, are made invisible by Diana to save them. While invisible, they find the dulcifex, Cupid's new toy, designed by Vulcan to make people nice. Restored to normality (and the dulcifex to invisibility), they decide to surprise the robbers. Near disaster ensues, but the dulcifex (identified with a ribbon) saves them, and helps bring about a happy and romantic conclusion.
Cast: 13 (four boys, eight girls (including narrator), and an adult as Jupiter). In the first performance, there were three boys, seven girls, and three adults (one being the narrator)
There are 5 parts as gods including an adult as Jupiter, and 8 parts as mortals. In the play's first casting, an extra part was needed, and the parts of Aurelia and Claudia were partly reallocated to create a new "child", Flora. However, this proved unnecessary later and the original cast list is being used. Another potential adaptation was to have a player do the parts both of Cupid and Iulia - this involves a very small amount of re-writing. Having proved the feasibility, this adaptation was abandoned as unnecessary.
The play is designed to be rehearsed separately for gods and mortals, and to be put together at the end of the process without major difficulty.
Staging and set: needs a simple set including Phyllis' window and (if possible) the door to Mercury's temple. The first performance took place in the Choir of a church with limited central space, but with several places of entry or exit.
Performance time: uncut, about 45 minutes, when Latin is fluent!
download
audience handout
interleaved download
cut version for Winkfield St Mary
Latin-only version
The following files are big, and take quite a time to download:
Scene 1 - pronunciation
Scene 2 - pronunciation
Scene 3 - pronunciation
Scene 4 - pronunciation
Scene 5 - pronunciation
Scene 6 - pronunciation