New College Classical Drama Society Greek Play

Sophocles’ Ajax

Wednesday 3 June to Saturday 6 June 2026

8.30pm-10:00pm: Sophocles’ Ajax in the New College Cloisters - Note: the late start is due to chapel services)

SYNOPSIS
"All of us living on this earth I see are nothing more than ghosts or flimsy shadows."

The Trojan war is in its last year, and the great warrior Achilles has just died. Ajax, furious that Achilles' armour has been awarded to Odysseus rather than to him, has gone out to kill the other Greeks: but he has forgotten that he earlier angered the goddess Athena when he refused her offer of help in battle. She now drives him mad, making him instead kill the army’s commonly owned cattle in the belief that they are his human targets.

Most of the play is about Ajax' increasing isolation from his comrades and family. When he realises what he has done, he is overwhelmed with shame and decides to commit suicide but does not tell his concubine, son or brother: they are left to discover his body. At the opening of the play he had already cut ties with the other Greek soldiers, but now this comes back to bite him as the Greek commanders want to deny his body a burial – a significant taboo.

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