Buzzing Around With The Wasps

If you think that classical Greek theatre is all tragedy and kings, then the bawdy political satire of The Wasps might set you straight.

Written by the Greek playwright Aristophanes and first performed in 422 BC, now Austin filmmakers Jake Binstock and Parker Rouse have brought it to the screen with their black-and-white backyard recreation of ancient Athens. In their version of The Wasps, executive produced by Richard Linklater, father and son Procleon (Dale Dobson) and Anticleon (Luke Ellis) are at odds over the elder's self-indulgent hobby of becoming a juror. Meanwhile, their servants and the old man's friends buzz around their home, only further complicating issues in this saucy, scathing satire.

The film had its Austin premiere last month at the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In, but now makes the move indoors for a special screening at the Violet Crown Cinema, complete with a Q&A from the filmmakers. Ahead of that special event, writer/directors Binstock and Rouse explained how they brought this ancient wonder to modern audiences.

Austin Chronicle: So, who is the classics major here?

The Wasps: Neither. When I (Jake) first moved to Austin in 2020, it was the middle of the pandemic and there wasn’t much going on. It was a while before I lined up my first production gig so I ended up just hanging out on my porch reading ancient Greek literature nonstop for like two months straight and really fell in love with it on my own time. My (Parker) inpoint to this world was a class on pre-Socratic philosophy in college.

AC: Greek plays, while formative for the very existence of drama, really don't get performed that much anymore, and when they do they're mostly the tragedies. Why take on Aristophanes, and The Wasps in particular?

TW: When we make films together, it becomes a sort of conversation between the two of us artistically. And when we read Aristophanes, his voice cut through so strongly it almost felt as though he was another artist in the room who shared our sensibilities. His style is the exact blend of high-brow and low-brow that we are drawn to. And The Wasps in particular presented themes we had been chasing for years in other projects, specifically intergenerational divides.

AC: Greek comedies are often what my old drama teachers would call "earthy" or, more accurately, filthy fun. What were the discussions about how heavily to lean into the ribaldry?

TW: The ribaldry operated as an antidote to some of the heavier political content in the film, so it always seemed obvious to go all the way in that department. Even so, we didn’t really have to bring out the “earthy” qualities too much – all of it was already baked into the text. Ancient Greek actors actually wore wooden dildos for many of these performances. We were just trying to honor the original text as much as possible. And it was refreshing to lean into lighter material and revert back to our younger sensibilities after years of trying to be more “serious.”

AC: There's something terribly timely about the idea of the public sphere as a place for daft old men to get rich. Was it encouraging or depressing to know that the play is still so relevant?

TW: Anthropologically, it was exciting and fascinating to see how little had changed from a 2,500 year old political situation to our current situation. It revealed something about human behavior on a huge time scale. As it applied to our lives, it was depressing because it limits expectations for change. Ideally, looking at an ancient story like this can make you more aware of patterns.

AC: The old, thorny question: translation. Which version did you use, and what modifications did you make at the scripting stage?

TW: The first translation we read and looked at was David Barrett’s 1964 translation. As we dug deeper we found that his translation was a riff on a number of other well-known British translations, particularly Benjamin Bickley Rogers’ 1875 translation. Then we found as many available translations as possible and spent a long time making a Frankenstein version of all of our favorite wordings, going line by line. Once we had the cast set and began rehearsals, we then shaped the script around the sensibilities of the actors. And of course we did a lot of condensing and rearranging of certain references contemporary to Aristophanes.

AC: A delightfully cinematic element you add is the addition of on-screen footnotes to explain some of the cultural ephemera. Who was responsible for the research, and how much did you go, 'OK, the audience doesn't need a full biography of Cleon'?

TW: Our rule of thumb with the footnotes was 1. Is it funny? 2. Is it funny?

But our version of funny was often “Is it something so esoteric and niche that it leaves the audience scratching their heads?”

We really loved movies like Laurence Olivier’s Henry V in high school, where we didn’t follow every beat of the story, but we understood the gist of the plot and felt the emotional truth of each scene. That became our MO with The Wasps.

AC: One of the biggest changes from the original text is that you genderswap Sosias the servant, which adds a whole new sexual political dynamic. Why make that change?

TW: When we began casting the film, there were certain roles, particularly the servants, where we felt gender was unimportant. It was more about finding the most interesting actors who we felt would best elevate the material. We developed the “sexual political dynamic” to work for any gender combination between the servants.

AC: And I have to ask – how did you get the rarely-bestowed Linklater seal of approval?

TW: We had been working on Linklater’s ranch as art-assistants for a couple of years and had spent a lot of time shooting the shit with him about movies and sports. This turned into a sort of mentorship and he liked and trusted us enough to help us get our first feature off the ground in any way he could. It definitely helped that what we were doing was so far away from his corner of the sandbox, that there was no danger of us aping him in any way.

The Wasps screens Wednesday, Feb. 26, 7pm, at Violet Crown Cinema, 434 W. Second. Tickets and info at austin.violetcrown.com