Cover Page

Title Page

ACASTOS
TWO PLATONIC DIALOGUES

Iris Murdoch

To Michael Kustow

ART AND EROS: A Dialogue about Art

ART AND EROS:
A Dialogue about Art

Characters in order of appearance

CALLISTOS a beautiful youth

ACASTOS a serious youth

MANTIAS a political man, in love with Callistos

DEXIMENES a cynical man

PLATO

SOCRATES

Athens in the late fifth century BC.

At the time of the dialogue, Plato is about twenty years old, Socrates about sixty.

Acastos, Callistos, Mantias and Deximenes are fictional characters.

The first performance of Art and Eros took place as a National Theatre Platform Performance in February 1980. The cast was as follows:

SOCRATES Andrew Cruikshank

PLATO Greg Hicks

ACASTOS Adam Norton

CALLISTOS Robin McDonald

MANTIAS Anthony Douse

DEXIMENES Michael Beint

The director was Michael Kustow

At the house of Deximenes.
Enter Callistos, Acastos, Mantias, Deximenes and Plato.
Callistos carries an actor’s mask.
Plato sits apart. They have just come from the theatre.

CALLISTOS

Oh wasn’t it great? That last scene was just–perfect– Oh I did enjoy the play! Didn’t you, Acastos?

ACASTOS

I’m not sure.

DEXIMENES

Acastos never knows what he feels.

CALLISTOS

You must know what you feel, who else could?

MANTIAS

Is Socrates coming?

CALLISTOS

Oh I do hope Socrates will come!

MANTIAS

Stop jumping around!

CALLISTOS

Did you like the play, Plato?

DEXIMENES

Did you like it?

MANTIAS

No, I never do.

DEXIMENES

Why do you go then?

MANTIAS

One must keep an eye on the theatre, it’s an influence.

CALLISTOS

I believe it all when it is happening.

ACASTOS

They say you shouldn’t do that, you should sort of realise that it’s a play, and –

MANTIAS

How can you not with actors speaking in those pretentious unnatural voices!

DEXIMENES

Plays aren’t serious. The theatre is cheap magic. Toys for conceited directors. A chance for half–educated people to think they’ve understood something. It’s unimportant.

MANTIAS

Nothing people like so much is unimportant.

CALLISTOS

Yes, everybody loves the theatre, not just us intellectuals.

Laughter

DEXIMENES

Art is all in the mind. It’s not in the play. We invent the art experience ourselves.

ACASTOS

So we all have different ones?

MANTIAS

I must say I think the theatre’s done everything now, after what we’ve had today. We’ve seen it all!

DEXIMENES

People always think their art is the end of art.

Callistos, who has been playing with his actor’s mask, suddenly puts it on and begins to declaim:

CALLISTOS

Zeus, whoever he may be, If he cares to bear this name –

MANTIAS

Oh shut up!

DEXIMENES

The theatre is humbug. But who wants it to be like life, it’s escape.

CALLISTOS

Yes, who wants it to be like horrid old life? It’s a dream world.

DEXIMENES

Monkey business on the stage and private fantasies in the audience!

MANTIAS