Our final festival for the year is named for the two ancient symbols of comedy and tragedy. In Greek theatre, actors in tragic roles wore a boot called a buskin that elevated them above the other actors. The actors with comedic roles only wore a thin-soled shoe called a sock. Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, is often depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing buskins. Thalia, the muse of comedy, is similarly associated with the mask of comedy and comic’s socks. Therefore, the masks themselves are often referred to as Sock and Buskin. Thus the perfect title for a festival where each year, a small group of actors get to challenge themselves by presenting both a dramatic and comic piece side-by- side.

 

This annual festival’s closing night is also our end-of-year function where we celebrate the year we’ve had, toast to past and future success and acknowledge key players (both on and off the stage) in the Dionysus awards, The Ariadnes. For this reason, we invariably relocate from our usual performance space at the college to more humble yet festive lodgings for all the performance nights, a new challenge for the company to create an authentic performance space and performance in a pub environment. We don’t mind, however, we like a challenge and figure that our patron, Dionysus the god of wine, pleasure and fertility, would be incredibly proud of us.

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The original format of Sock & Buskin makes for a very engaging night of theatre for the patrons and a uniquely exciting experience for the actors.

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NOTE: The closing night of the festival will be invitation only; open only to those who have been involved with the company in some capacity throughout the past year. All other performances will be available to the general public