Sophocles (496
BC–406 BC), one of the great Greek dramatists of the ancient world, was born to a wealthy family at Colonus, near Athens. He had a charmed childhood, was highly educated and a personal friend of prominent statesmen, and, as a good
Athenian, served faithfully as a treasurer and general for Athens when it was expanding its empire and influence. Though he wrote approximately 123 plays,
only seven tragedies survive in their entirety: Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra,
Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.
With Sophocles, Greek tragedy reached its most characteristic form; he frequently beat out rivals Aeschylus and Euripides in annual drama competitions.
Michael Sheen, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has been seen widely on stage and screen. His major theatrical roles include Henry V, Peer Gynt, Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger as well as appearances in Pinter’s Moonlight and The Homecoming. Among his film work is Wilde, Mary Reilly, and Othello. Since leaving RADA, he has recorded numerous audiobooks, including Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Great Poems of the Romantic Age, and Oedipus the King. He has also directed and read the part of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet for Naxos AudioBooks.
John Moffatt (1922–2012) was an English actor and playwright. He was best known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio and for a wide range of stage roles in the West End from the 1950s to the
1980s.
Heathcote Williams
is a poet, playwright, author, and actor. His first book, The Speakers, was published in 1964. A portrait of the orators at
Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, it was greeted with critical acclaim. He went on to write his epic poems Whale Nation, Autogedden, Sacred Elephant, and Falling for a
Dolphin, which were all published by Jonathan Cape and released as audiobooks, and have won numerous awards. Heathcote is also an award-winning playwright. His first full length play, AC/DC,
won a hat trick of prestigious awards: the Evening Standard Award for Most
Promising Play, the George Devine Award, and the John Whiting Award. His later play, The Local Stigmatic, first played at the Royal Court in 1966 and was made into a film by Al Pacino. In
2011, Roy Hutchins launched a show of Heathcote’s newer poems entitled Zanzibar Cats which has had a UK Tour and a run in Edinburgh where it won the prestigious Herald Archangel Award.
Heathcote lives in Oxford, England with his wife, Diana Senior.
